First Grade Books

I thought I would share some of the books that I like and dislike that are popular K-2 beginning chapter book series. I know there will be people who totally disagree with me, but if you child is learning to read I can give you my take on these books.

1. Magic Tree House series. This is my favorite of all the beginning chapter book series. It is interesting for both boys and girls as the main characters are a brother and his younger sister. Each book involves a trip to a different land or time or both. There is a little suspense for the youngsters but nothing scary. I feel the brother/sister duo get along fairly well. The grammar is decent and there's not the use of the word stupid. I have found one book that used the word hate. (2 words I despise in kids books).

My FAVORITE part is that the author, Mary Pope Osborne, has done non-fiction companions with them. They are wonderful. Claire loves to read the fiction books and then we have been reading the accompaning research books together. They are written simply and with illustrations so it hold Claire's attention. I love the fact that she gets excited to learn more about what she just read about. It is a great way to incorporate non-fiction into young children's reading.

My recent find is you can order these, or almost any popular series through scholastic. Just go to
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clubs/series_headquarters.htm You will find the MTH series under grade 2-3. You can order the fiction books individually for 2$ each and the non-fiction for $3! Great price! (Note: you have to order them through your school I believe, but not a problem if you have any kid in school.)

2. Rainbow Magic Fairy seried by Daisy Meadows. I like this one, but it really is a girly series. The 2 main characters are girls who find the lost fairies scattered by someone and return them to rainbowland, or someplace like that. I like how the 2 friends work together and they're interesting enough to keep my daughter's attention. After the Rainbow Magic set, there's a Jewel Fairies set. I haven't read those but assume they're similar.

One thing I don't like is that the fairies are illustrated in skimpy fairy outfits. For those who don't have issues with what girls wear, it won't be a problem. For those that do, you'll notice or your child will. It's not a huge issue with me because Claire is so used to it that she'll see something and remark it's not modest and isn't that too bad? Still, I can't give the series a perfect 10 because of it.

3. My third selection is a dislike and I know many people will say WHAT?!, but I don't like the series and I'll tell you why. First, the name of the series is Junie B. Jones. They are enormously popular and as an adult I can see why people think they're funny. However, I don't want Claire reading them without me and here's why.

Junie B. Jones often has words like 'stupid' littered throughout it. It is not the only word but it is one that grinds me the most. Even more is the grammar in the series. The children use bad grammar and frankly, I don't want my kids picking that grammar up. Nor do I want them to think it's ok to use stupid so often, etc. So our rule is Claire can read them, but she has to read them with me and we talk about why someone says stupid, we correct grammar, etc.

Claire's WONDERFUL first grade teacher reads Junie B Jones to the class and when I found out I emailed her my concerns. She wrote back and said that she always changes bad words like stupid to silly, and always corrects the grammar because she doesn't like it either. I was relieved she was so supportive and that she had been doing that already.

Is there anything horribly wrong with the books? No. Do I like them? No. And now you know why. But if you like them and want to get them, again, go to the scholastic link above and the JBJ series in under the preK-1st grade section. They're 2$ each. And I don't judge those who read them. Most kids find them very funny.

A series that I'm not familiar with but will be looking into is the A-Z Mystery series. They involve 2 boys and a girl that solve mysterys. I'll let you know later what I think.