Thursday, November 17, 2011

mercy watson and geronimo stilton

today as a boy was choosing an encyclopedia brown book, i thought about how valuable book series are to children.  once a child has found a series, it's a predictable enjoyment for him or her.  as a teacher, i love the repetitive vocabulary (the more times a child encounters a word, the faster he/she knows it).  also, with books they like, children read more, and when they read more lots of good things happen to their reading skills!  

here are two series for second to fourth grade children.  

 newberry-winning author kate dicamillo wrote these colorful, funny books.  second grade readers who are ready for chapter books may be able to read them, although some words are challenging.
 we have five, and they are some of the most popular classroom books.
everybody loves mercy watson!

here's another very popular series.  geronimo stilton is a shy, timid mouse who has lots of adventures.  the books have different color and sized print, so the intimidation factor is low.  also there are so many pictures, children really want to read these.  

here's geronimo!

these have a mid-third-grade reading level, so parents may need to read them aloud to younger children.
raising children who love to read is a beautiful thing.  what are your children's favorites?

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the introduction to these authors. My daughter is starting kindergarten in January {she's 5}, and is so keen to read. We've been reading to the kids since they were inutero. It is so lovely to see children develop a love for reading early on!
    Do you have any recommendations for kindy children?
    Have a great weekend x

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  2. Oh, by the way, my 12y.o son has just finished the John Marsden books and LOVED them! And my 5yo loves anything by Mem Fox or Jackie French...

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  3. I love these book reviews and recommendations. We've been reading to the kids (4 & 2) since they were infants and now they both love books. Currently, they love Where the Wild Things Are. It's true, they can read the same book over and over and never tire of it.

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  4. This was a wonderful post, Noreen! Callum and I read together (still), and he's voraciously attacking a series called Red Wall by Brian Jacques right now (after chomping his way through Harry Potter twice! The best part of the Red Wall series is that there are 21 books! Nothing more satisfying than that!

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  5. My 14 year old discovered the John Marsden "Tomorrow When the War Begun" series after the movie came out and she absolutely loved them. My 11 year old reads a lot and is always asking to be taken to the library - she's currently into City of Ember/People of Sparks but also likes the Big Nate series. Also enjoys the Alice-Miranda series by Jacqueline Harvey.

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  6. Book lovers unite! Leah - I'll be posting about books for younger children in a couple of weeks. Also I never heard of John Marsden, but WOW, they look awesome. I bought one. Stay tuned. Also, Where the Wild Things Are is an everlasting favorite of mine and my students. I even have finger puppets of the characters - it's great practice for the reading skill of retelling the story. Lauren, Redwall is wonderful, too. I'm so happy that you enjoy reading with Callum. Christopher is 10 and we read all the time, too. Janine, thanks for sharing those other series. I need to keep up with them. Happy weekend!

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  7. Noreen, I wish I could post a picture of my 4th grade daughter's bed. It is covered with over 20 Geronimo Stilton books. We actually just asked her teacher at conferences if there were any negative side effects associated with too much Geronimo Stilton reading. :)

    We also love Mercy Watson. I love the illustrations, and the toast and "Baby".

    My kids are all voracious readers. We have high library fines as well. I'm hoping that someday I might have a wing named after me.

    -H

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  8. Oh, this is good! I have a 4th grader and we need some interesting but simpler reading material. She's been trying to read Mary Downing Hahn but is struggling. I'm going to show these to her!

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  9. heidi, the only thing i do not like about geronimo is the spelling. words are changed to be "mouse"-this or "rat"-that or "rodent"-the other. children who have trouble spelling may need an adult to talk to them about that. heather - enjoy!

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