Oz ,'First Date'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Here's my spreadsheet: [link]
I am also hampered by my limited background in early childhood education (i.e. none). I want to take a preliminary list to the teachers, with whom I'm meeting Weds., to get some feedback about grade choices. Note the 3rd graders are gifted and test at 95%ile or above, so I've cheated up a bit with some of their choices.
So far I've been working off of books I know, and the lists for Common Core exemplary texts and ALA notable books.
Has anyone been reading Scalzi's "The Human Division?" It is a multi-part book that has been released in chunks on Amazon (perhaps other outlets as well?)
I have been enjoying it. I'm about halfway through (on part 5 or 6). Overall, I find this an interesting way to release a book. I am not sure if Scalzi had this in mind when he wrote it, but it very much feels like a written form tv mini-series in that each part has a beginning, middle, and end, but the parts seem to be tied together well enough. The parts seemed really unrelated, but around now the relationships are coming together in an interesting fashion.
The audio version of the first part shows some labored writing on Scalzi's part. It seemed to be smoothed out after the first. I have mostly read the subsequent sections so I'm not sure if I would have noticed the choppy writing in the first part if I hadn't been listening to it.
The Magic Treehouse series is at least 50 books long by now.
The Littles series is another bunch of good short chapter books.
All the Frances books
Flea- I am going to forward to my BFF who i an early childhood educator and see if she has any recs. Can I give her your email?
Flea, I see you already have several Curious George books on the list, but I suggest adding Curious George Rides a Bike.
That was the book that got me started with origami in the 2nd grade.
You could add a few other Rosemary Wells books. Also the Sydney Taylor All of a Kind Family series. Patricia MacLachlan's Sara Plain and Tall. The Secret Garden. The If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series, or at least one or two. Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Understood Betsy.
I also found this list, which leans toward the younger kids: [link]
Two more suggestions, books I have fond but vague memories of from about 3rd grade:
Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat: [link]
and
Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield: [link]
Flea, I recommend "Key to the Treasure" (and others in that series) by the Amelia Bedelia author Peggy Parish. It was the first chapter book I ever read, and I loved it so much I kept reading it over and over and over until my dad finally got sick of seeing me read it and put it on top of the fridge so I'd have to read something else (had we only known there were sequels....)