More on Chapter Books

The first chapter book the kids read was Charlotte's Web.  We read it about a year ago now, and it was clear that the individual chapters made more of an impact than the overall story.  Wilder asked to hear the chapter where Avery lands on Templeton's rotten egg four or five nights in a row.  I sobbed through the chapter where Charlotte dies, but the kids didn't entirely notice.

Right around that time, we also read the two Winnie-the-Pooh chapter books, which I'd been given as a baby gift by a grad-school friend.  Those worked out alright because each of the chapters more or less stands on its own, and because a lot of the set pieces have been re-written in board-book form by Disney over the years.  And the kids had seen the original Pooh movie.

Although, a lot of the rhythm of the original Pooh books is quite specifically British.  If I hadn't lived in England for two years, I'm not sure I'd have as sure a grasp of where to put the pauses in some of those sentences.  Not that it matters too much, but it occurs to me now that all the English writers of children's books will make more sense to me now than they did before I lived in England.

Maybe everyone should just listen to a BBC World News broadcast for a few days, to get the hang of those weird emphases and pauses.

We were reading The Boxcar Children in November or December, right?  We read that one through twice, and Gemma's been asking to borrow it again.  I read Flat Stanley right around that time, too.  It's very short, only about 60 pages, so it makes a good early chapter book.  And lots of kids in the States will do Flat Stanley projects in first or second grade, so why not introduce them to the story early?

Then it was the "Littles" books by John Peterson that really got the kids up and running with chapter books.  All of those books are about 96 pages long* and I could read them in about 90 minutes.  (I read too quickly.  I'm always reminding myself to slow down.)  There are no awkward situations or difficult themes in the Littles books, at least not in the early ones (there are some children separated for their parents for eight years in a later book).  The author repeats the same set pieces in every book -- the family's size, the glider landing, some hijinks by Lucy and Tom.  The vocabulary is simple, not much past easy-reader level really.  There is the oddity of the husbands all having first names and the wives ... not, and of course it's worse that the kids don't even notice it, but you can't have everything, I suppose, and maybe next time around, I'll just invent first names for Mrs. Bigg and Mrs. Little.

One of the big ideas I took away from The New Read-Aloud Handbook was the idea that you can read books way above kids' current reading levels, and just edit out words or passages that might not be appropriate.  So we dropped almost every Indian-modifying adjective in Little House on the Prairie for example.

We've read Charlotte's Web again now and it sunk in quite a bit more.  But still, I'm not sure how much of the narrative arc of a long story like Little House or Betsy-Tacy stays with the kids.  Calder actually read them the first chapter of Black Beauty at bedtime one night, not because he thought the kids could follow the story, but because he thinks the lack of pictures helps them calm down faster.  Oddly enough, Gemma keeps asking when we're going to finish that story.  I'm certainly not worried about comprehension (the kids are five, and hiding boredom isn't one of their things) but clearly I'm doing this for me, not for them.  They'd probably be learning more about words and sounds if we just stuck to picture books.

Although: they're the ones choosing chapters instead of picture books, at meals and bedtime.  I'm happy to read anything.  Except maybe those awful Barbie books.  Eek.

While we're on the subject, I should confess that I went more than a little nuts on Scholastic collections this year.  I bought the first 24 Magic Tree House books for $38.85; I bought the entire Junie B. Jones collection for $39.95.  Last month, I bought a set of Ramona books.  Next month, I'm getting the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle collection.

I bought eight Magic School Bus chapter books, and we read all of those in December and January (but the kids insisted I skip all the little "factoid" boxes, and just stick to narrative).  We read the first Magic Tree House book, but then the kids got too scared to continue.  I'm leaving the Junie B. books for them to read themselves, because I don't think I like that kid.  I think Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle isn't ever meant to be read by a grown-up to children.

I realize that I went nuts with Scholastic this year.  I would have done that even with one child, I'm sure, but with three kids, there were too many great bargains to pass up.  I'll have to get a grip before too long, because the Scholastic flyers aren't going away.

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* 32 pages for picture books, 64 or 96 pages for early chapter books: I wonder how irritated children's book authors get with the printer's constraints, all those eight-page folds.

Comments

[SheilaC]

Interesting list. I'll have to check out the Littles. And I remember Ramona with great affection, will have to look for those ones. We like A.A. Milne, the poems as well as the stories.

And yes I'm very tempted by the "collections" from Scholastic too. And it's annoying when they sell a set of #1-8, and then you have to wait months for the set of 9-16 to show up.

I like Junie B. Jones, but the kids don't seem to find her funny, they just seem puzzled. So we're holding off on the First Grader ones for a while.

Now we're hooked on the Magic Schoolbus. I got a set of 24 of them, but they are the easy based-on-TV picture books that the kids read themselves.

See, I should have started reading the chapter books when the kids were 4, and I could edit. Now they jockey for position to read along, and I can't skip any words, certainly not whole sections. So I have to like the whole book, or engage in long discussions about the controversial issues. Which nobody wants to listen to without 100 interruptions. Oh well.

We share more stuff in LibraryThing now. Cool!

[lb]

I read aloud to my 5yo too. We've done the Ramona books - in fact all the Beverly Cleary - and they are great. Also you could look for the author Dick King-Smith. "Harry's Mad" and "The Sheep-pig" are good ones.

My 5yo enjoyed Stuart Little but found Charlotte's Web too stressful. Right now we are reading "Mr. Popper's Penguins"

The Magic School Bus chapter books, as well as Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House series I just let her read herself.

[Wendy]

I would also recommend The Cricket in Times Square (Selden), My Father's Dragon (Stiles Gannet), pretty much anything by Roald Dahl, and Pippi Longstocking (Lindgren). Pippi is my 5 year old's all time favorite at this point. We have been enjoying the Borrowers (Norton), too, a little less cloying than the Littles. But also a little more paraphrasing.

[Jennifer]

I've tried the original Winnie-the-Pooh a couple of times, but found the narrative style a bit irritating. I think I've been spoilt by the Board book versions. As an Australian (share some of the language rhythm, not all of it), I reckon A A Milne is at the extreme end of Britishness. Certainly Roald Dahl is much more straightforward.

[meg]

I used to read Charlotte's Web aloud to my third graders when I taught school. We teachers used to give each other sympathetic pats on the back when we knew another was nearing the end of the book. I never once made it through that chapter without crying, and there were often several students crying with me. "No one was with her when she died". See, I'm choking up just typing it, and I haven't read it in at least four years.

We haven't really brought up the subject of death with my son yet. It hasn't come up yet for him, really, thankfully. I'm not sure how I would explain that, or even if I want to yet?

Lots of good suggestions for chapter books to start. Thank you, Jody!

[liz]

Mr. Spock has been reading the Pooh books to Muffin Man and they tried The Little Prince, but MM got bored. They'll try it again someday.

I think we may try Stuart Little or Charlotte's Web next.

[susoz]

I recommend the Moomins books and also the Narnia books - they were among the first chapter books I read to my son when he was 4-5.