Here's my two cents, in addition to the great comments that were on the last post.
First of all, I agree with Jenny that every kid is different in terms of what they can handle with content. The best thing is for parents to be very involved in what their children read in terms of subject matter. But kids should read what they like---I took lots of teaching reading classes and the conclusions were all the same: kids learn to read by reading. Kids should read what they like to read, especially at this age. (Amy, I know you agree. I'm preaching to the choir. Just wanted to say I agree with Jenny, that's all.)
You want to catch a 2nd grader and hook him or her onto reading because there really is good stuff coming up: Amy for your daughter, I'd eventually suggest the Shoes books by Stretfield and the All of A Kind Family books and all of FHBurnett and GCLevine and Richard Peck, but she won't be ready for those for a little bit.
I checked out the Katie Kazoo books to see what your daughter's teacher is suggesting. Love Amazon.com where I can look inside the book! I don't have an opinion about KKazoo, but it gave me a gauge as to the level of your daughter's reading. So here's my top five authors/series suggestions:
1. Beverly Cleary. Love this woman for this age group. The Ramona books are great. Start with those, and then see if your daughter would like the rest. I just requested the Ralph books on CD for my boys. Can't wait. Cleary is such a nice, witty grandmotherly type. I bet she makes a mean oatmeal cookie and gives large candy bars to trick-or-treaters. What a sweetie.
With the next three, I don't know the series thoroughly, but well enough that I'd say you should peruse them and see what you think.
2. Box Car Children.
3. ABC Mysteries.
4. Magic Treehouse series.
5. And lastly, I would suggest some good non-fiction. Find a topic she likes, and see what your library has in her grade level.
There are lots of library websites that will suggest books for this grade level, but you can't tell about content. For that, if you get a minute, I'd suggest perusing some home school mom blogs about their curriculum for this age. Find a homeschooler who has values that match ours, and see what she has her kids read. Gotta LOVE homeschooler mom blogs for their resources---and once they find a good thing, they like to share.
Happy reading! If none of this works, message me again and I'll keep looking. This should get you started.
3 comments:
After commenting on your last post I thought of a few more my daughter loves.
She loves math books. There is a series called I Love Math that we find at the library. One of them is called Do Octopi Eat Pizza Pi. They are her late at night reading.
She also read a great series of books this summer about animals. She is an animal lover. The first in the series is called The White Giraffe.
I agree with the Magic Tree House books. The research guides are great too.
She read a few of the "Shoe books" a few years ago. They were some of my favorites when I was young.
But mostly she loves to read non-fiction. She haunts the animal section at the library each week and comes home with more and more books about cats. She knows everything there is to know about every kind of cat there is. So non fiction is a great thing once they find their subject.
Roald Dahl books also are a big hit here. She loved the BFG especially.
I'm impressed -- you hit all of Katia's (my 7 year old) favorite series. She started with Magic Treehouse, then moved to A to Z mysteries and Boxcar Children (her favorite). She also loves the American Girl series, and they are very clean. She likes Roald Dahl, but a lot of those are a bit more sketchy... Her new find is the "Girls to the Rescue" series by Bruce Lansky. I haven't read these, but from what she has told me, they are about clever courageous girls who use their wits to save the day. Each book is a collection of 8-10 short stories. I need to read one since she's already read several. :)
I loved the Boxcar Children when I was a kid, the Beverly Cleary books, too. Also a few others I remember are:
"The White Stallion" by Elizabeth Shub
"Noodles, Sheep Security Guard" by Sharon O'Toole
"Rent a Third Grader" by BB Hiller
Also several that were mentioned by other commenters. Honestly, I don't remember how squeaky clean these books were, I haven't read them in quite a while. However, knowing my parents, I would say they should all be quite safe.
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