Passing on a joy of reading

 

I grew up only knowing one of my 4 half brothers. There are five years between us and lots of differences besides gender and age. I will be the first to say I was the wild child or teenager to be exact. Another big difference is how we veiw reading and writing. Of course my brother knows how to do both but to him they were always something he had to do while I loved and enjoyed and still do love and enjoy both. I would create libraries complete with check out cards at my grandmothers, I read every Babysitters Little Sisters book I could get my hands on starting from grade 3. That turned into the Babysitters Club. I frequently visited the used book store by my house and bought the books in the series and the great thing about that was I could also exchange the book for store credit when I was done. The day I discovered Harry Potter was the day I really remember discovering the world of fantasy. I love that I finished the series along with the Twilight series.

One thing I swore I would do with my children was read to them every night. My first memories of this just so happens to be rocking C Man to sleep reading Tales of the Beadle Bard an extension from the Harry Potter series. When C Man started sleeping in his own bed I began reading picture books. That turned into a picture book and reading my more adult books to him, as he wasn't quite old enough to understand what was going on in the Incarnations of Immortality series. As he got older though I found the need to start reading a more kid friendly series of books to him. Harry Potter is just to old for him but I do plan to read it once he is older. Any of the BabySitters Club books are too girly. I had a solution though.

Enter the Bailey School Kids. When I was younger I didn't get too into that series but I remembered enjoying the ones I did. For those of you not familiar with the series each book follows a similar plot line, a group of four friends attend school in Bailey City where one of the friends will suspect a new grown up of being some kind of mythical creature. From mermaid to werewolf to leperchaun they go through why they suspect them and the book will climax with a scene that really has all four friends convinced. I bought a set of three and read through them quickly. They are rather short but entertaining and C Man really enjoyed the three we read. I find the series is perfect for reading to younger readers and since they aren't too long make a great read for kids just starting the journey into chapter books. Each book follows a similar title pattern for example we read Mermaids Don't Run Track and Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp. I did a quick search and found that there are 51 books in the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series as well as three additional series including the Bailey School Kids Jr series which switches up the don't in the title for the word do and some special edition and holiday edition books. If your child is a fan of a particular type of mythical creature you shouldn't have a problem finding one to suit thier interest.

Another series C Man really enjoyed reading and I plan to get further into is the Magic Treehouse series. The books follow a sister and a brother who find a tree house and journey in time to many different places. We read the first 2 in the series before taking a break. I really enjoyed the two we read, and had bought the first four in a boxed set. The only problem with this was C Man was pretty set on a particular book so while he enjoyed the first two I think he was more concentrated on getting through the books themselves as opposed to enjoying the content. One thing I really liked about the ones we did get to read was the little bit of historical fact they had in them. They weren't over kill with facts but did have enough that there was also a little bit of learning involved. The the Bailey School Kids they weren't super long and would be another series I would suggest for those just embarking on a journey into beginner chapter books.

Now why did we take a break from the Magic Treehouse series? Well about a week or so ago I started reading Charlotte's Web to C Man. So far so good but we aren't quite finished with it yet. I ended up buying a boxed EB White set. I had never read Charlotte's Web but it was of course one of my favourite movies as a child. All the memories of that movie come back to me as I'm reading through the book and they did a good job of keeping the movie true to the book from what I have read so far. I was excited to start reading it to C Man and was glad he chose that over Stuart Little as I had read that as a child so don't mind waiting so much. I'll be sure to review both books after we have read them

If you want to pass a joy of reading to your child I think reading to them is a great way to start and if your interested in starting out with any of the books I mentioned here are the links to thier amazon pages

Great Books for Girls
Baby Sitters Little Sisters #1
Baby Sitters Club #1 both by Ann M Martin

Books for older Children
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Twilight by Stephanie Meyers

Great for any age
Bailey School Kids series by Marcia T. Jones and Debbie Dadey
#1 Vampires Don't wear Polka Dots for those who want to start at the beginning of the series
#2 Werewolves Don't go to Summer Camp
#26 Mermaids Don't Run Track

The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne
Books 1-4

The EB White Boxed Set conatining Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and Trumpet of The Swan