Books you’ll love: Lady Lollipop
February 19, 2010
Bedtime is has always had the same routine:
Bath, pajamas, brush teeth, prayers, dad’s made up story (either a watered down Hercules/Greek Mythology story, or Sherlock Holmes) followed by a book or two, and then “Mommy’s secret thing” (a combination of back scratch, and massage where I go through head to toe saying “Your head is asleep, your back is asleep…”) and then a “made up lullaby”( I have to sing new words to a made up tune every night).
Can you tell our kids keep us on our toes? We’re making up songs, stories and melodies fresh every night! It’s good practice and we love it. But every so often, Ken wants a break from his made up stories (he is a history teacher, and so his days are already filled with storytelling) and so we decided about a year ago to introduce more chapter books to the routine. We have gone through most of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, Charlotte’s Web, and a few others. But I will be honest, and say that finding books for a newly turned 5 and 4 year old is hard!
We had to skip the end of Lion Witch and the Wardrobe…or at least paraphrase…and Kenneth decided to postpone Harry Potter after the first chapter (He got a bit excited on that one).
So, we have been on a quest to find good chapter books for Preschool age children, and we found this great book at the library this month:
Lady Lollipop by Dick King-Smith, illustrated by Jill Barton.
It’s about a princess who wants a pet pig more than anything else, and gets to know some really fun characters a long the way.
This was a hit. I think they read it in just a couple nights. The best part, was that it was perfect for my boy and my girl: a dirty pig, a funny pig keeper and a stubborn princess. You can’t go wrong. The illustrations are great too!
Do you have other big kid books for pre-K kids you love to read? It’s a narrow category for sure…and we are always on the quest for more! Please share and I’d love to put together a list to share!
Happy Weekend everyone, and happy reading!
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Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll look it up at the library. My son really liked reading “The Mouse and the Motorcycle” by Beverly Cleary. We are currently reading “Stuart Little” but it doesn’t hold his attention as well. I think that the vocabulary is a little advance for a 4 year old.
My kids have enjoyed the Ralph S. Mouse series by Beverly Cleary, and most of her other books.
We love the Mercy Watson stories (also about the adventures of a pig!) and all other books by Kate DiCamillo (including Edeard Tulane). For girls, the Betsy Tacy series is an adorable depiction of friendship.
i can’t recommend “socks” by beverly cleary highly enough!
we also enjoyed “despereaux” by kate dicamillo.
All the Dick King-Smith books are wonderful. Another favorite were (are) the Catwings books by Ursula K. LeGuin. And Winnie the Pooh is a great read-aloud! My daughter also thoroughly enjoyed the Spiderwick Chronicles at that age – may be too scary for some kids but it was just the right amount of scary for her. She also really liked the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling – especially The Cat Who Walked by Himself. They’re all lovely to read aloud (though she had lots of questions about spankings after the Elephant Child story). And don’t stop with the picture books! Some of our favorites that still work for older kids are the Henry books by DB Johnson, anything by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, the Zen books by Jon J. Muth, the Charlie and Lola books by Lauren Child, and Halibut Jackson by David Lucas.
What about Paddington Bear and also by Michael Bond The adventures of Olga da Polga. These are about a funny little guniea pig and her adventures. Maybe Ella Enchanted or Because of Winn Dixie. The Borrowers are always fun to read as well.
Someone just recommended these books to us: http://www.amazon.com/Freddy-Anniversary-Collection-Walter-Brooks/dp/1585673463/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266599235&sr=1-1
We only just started reading one, but my boys love it. I also love the Moffats!
Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl! One of my top 5 favorite books ever.
“The Ordinary Princess”
“Wizard of Oz”
Any of the “Ramona” books by Beverly Cleary
Junie B Jones Series
Captain Underpants Series
Absolutely…..Positively read….The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. There are some big words, but everyone needs to hear big words. It has amazing illustrations. Short chapters that will leave you hanging and wanting more. Beautiful and inspired message of love. I love to do all the voices too. Be prepared for kleenex!!
My preschoolers loved “The Cricket in Times Square.” It is such a hard category! Thanks for the recommendation; this is one I don’t know.
Oh, I’m going to look for this one! My dauaghter is 4 and I do the same thing with chapter books. We’ve read Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson and The Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren. All beautiful!
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All great choices, but I second the Betsy Tacy series – to paraphrase Meg Cabot, they have all the historical charm of the Laura Ingalls without the pages on rabbit skinning. Also, Lovelace had a complete gift for writing for a variety of ages, so while the early books are perfect for the pre-K set, the high school books fit well into early Y.A. Enjoy!
Another vote for Betsy/Tacy (Maud Hart Lovelace)! Another series that we adore is The Magic Tree House. My daughter is an advanced reading 9 year old and still wants to get new ones and re-read her old favorites.
It’s the adventures of a brother and sister and all the different time periods/places they end up. So fun mixed with some actual learning! Shh! Don’t tell them that!
Try “My Father’s Dragon” and “No Flying in the House”. My 4 & 6 yr old girls loved both!
Mercy Watson.
The Littles (not sure of the author) – I’m not sure if there is a new version but it’s a series. They are chapter but with some nice pen illustrations every few pages. A family of tiny people (with tails!) who live in the walls and alternately cause havoc and solve problems for the Biggs family.
My Father’s Dragon – a three-book series.
Pippi Longstocking.
Great topic – I’ve been looking for these suggestions too.
Boxcar Children (#1, specifically) is one of our favorites. We also read some of the classics that have good adapted versions: Black Beauty, Swiss Family Robinson, Around the World in 80 Days, Little Women. My 10-year old, now very familiar with the stories, has very little trouble with the original versions of these books, though most were written at least 100 years ago.
Thanks for all the ideas. I’ll take some of these ideas to the library.
The My Father’s Dragon trilogy is a cute one – not as cerebral as CS Lewis, though…we’ve also loved Winnie the Pooh. I guess our tastes run younger than everyone else’s, lol. My oldest was an early reader and she absolutely loved any of the Ramona books, Magic School Bus chapter books, the Mouse and the Motorcycle…um, lots more!
My 4 and 6 are big into nightly read alouds. Their faves? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and just about anything else by Roald Dahl — we’ll be on him for awhile. They also loved the My Father’s Dragon series, but if you’ve started on Dick King-Smith, you have to read Babe, of course!
Sloan loved the Junie B Jones series. She is a very spunky girl & always into some kind of mischief. I think we have every book from that series. The books even had me giggling. I loved the Ramona books when I was a kid. Heck I still love them
Another series that Sloan really enjoyed was The Magic Tree House series. The Magic Tree House books all revolve around real life history or things in nature. Jack & Annie solve the mysteries through reading certain books. Many of these stories have prompted my daughter to read historical literature to find out more about the events presented in the story. It’s always fun when reading inspires a child. The wonderful thing about all the books mentioned is that I think a boy would enjoy them just as much as a girl.
my favourites as a young child were all the enid blyton stories, especially the magic faraway tree and the wishing chair. but there are heaps of other enid blyton books filled with short stories.
another one, australian this time, is May Gibbs ‘Snugglepot and Cuddlepie’ – beautiful stories and as an artist and illustrator yourself i’m sure you’ll love May Gibbs’ illustrations. she has a couple of books within the series but that one was always my favourite
another australian one, this one very much more suited to girls, are the stories by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. The Enchanted Forest and Blossom are my favourites. they can sometimes be hard to get a hold of but very much worth it if you can, i still have my treasured copies from childhood and pour over her beautifulwonderfulamazinglytalented fairy illustrations regularly
other ideas.. the classics – peter pan, alice in wonderland, winnie the pooh
My childhood was enchanted by Enid Blyton from Brer Rabbit, The Faraway Tree and through to the Famous Five and Secret Seven as I got a little older….
Only this week I bought my five year old Enid Blyton’s Bedtime Stories. I wondered if it was a little old for her, but she has been glued to my side as I sit in her room and read her a story each evening! The illustrations are simply beautiful…
Hi Sarah!
check out this two by suzy lee they are TERRIFIC trust me!
the zoo
wave
http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Suzy-Lee/dp/1933605286/ref=pd_sim_b_3
http://www.amazon.com/Wave-Suzy-Lee/dp/081185924X
Classic A. A. Milne Winnie the Pooh – timeless and ageless, I think.
Sarah and Ken,
Try to find the wonderful books by Thornton Wilder. They are all about the birds and animals in the woods. I can still remember the sound of my mother reading them aloud to me and my brother who was just 11 months younger than me. We both loved every story in every book. We adored the way the birds spoke to one another and I still think of those stories each time I hear the birds in our backyard.
Opps I made a terrible mistake. It is Thornton BURGESS! not Wilder
I haven’t seen this one, but it sounds great! I’ll have to look it up. Finding longer books for little ones can be tricky, but I’d highly recommend Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series and the Clementine series by Sara Pennypacker (with Marla Frazee’s fabulous illustrations!) Far Flung Adventures series and Magic Tree House series have been a big hit with my voracious reader of a nephew – he’s 6 now, but when he was younger he was always looking for great adventure stories that were not too scary. He also loved The Spiderwick Chronicles but some parts were too scary and had to be skipped over, but of course, every kid is different. And I would totally echo everyone’s praise of Kate DiCamillo. Here writing is so beautiful. Isn’t finding good books so much fun? I love reading everyone’s suggestions!
My 6 yo son and 5yo daughter enjoyed PippiLongstocking, as well as anything by Dick King-Smith and Roald Dahl. The Twits was a recent big hit!
Hi Sarah,
I’d agree with a previous poster, The Magic Tree House books are a series of quick reads my husband has read to both our girls for the past two/three years. One is now 8 and the other 5. These stories are good for both boys and girls and have actual information that my daughter has quoted while on the roller coaster Pompeii ride at Busch Gardens.
Happy reading! …Sarah
Delurking to say, Shirley Hughes’ Alfie books (http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/childrens/alfie/home.htm), Milly-Molly-Mandy (http://www.jamboree.freedom-in-education.co.uk/literature/milly-molly-mandy.htm), and, although it’s probably hard to get, Jip and Janneke (http://www.abc.nl/blog/?tag=jip-janneke). I love Jip and Janneke. I love them with all my heart.
You have complied a fabulous list of wonderful books! Thank you for sharing those. I have three more to add that I did not see on your list.
The Bobsey Twins by Laura Lee Hope
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Hank the Cowdog by John Erickson
Hank may be a little stretch for your children. Boys really like ol’ Hank!
The first book that comes to my mind is “The Cricket in Times Square.” There are plenty in the series to keep you busy.
Also, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty MacDonald. They are hilarious stories that teach good and practical lessons. Great for boys and girls alike.
Hope you enjoy!