MORE 'EARLY-CHAPTER-BOOKS' POSTS
Meet the most necessary and least loved age range of children's books.I have been carefully combing through every last easy book and early chapter book I could get my grubby little hands on and, with the help of my co-workers, I've come up with a good, if imperfect, list.
Older than easy but not yet novels. The fact of the matter is that while Easy Books are hard to write, Early Chapter Books are hard to categorize. They're also ideal bedtime books for older children, which means that with the European imports you get a lot of experimentation. American early chapter books are pretty much just written to please. Here then are the books written with 6-9 year olds in mind.
I’ve heard them called any number of things. Junior chapter books. Young readers. Early chapter books. Just plain old “chapter books”. They’re the transitional readers you hand a child when they’ve graduated from easy books but aren’t ready yet for, say, Harry Potter. And like any book, they have a wide range of reading levels. […]
Baby Monkey, Private Eye By Brian Selznick and David Serlin Illustrated by Brian Selznick Scholastic Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-1-338-18061-9 Ages 3 and up On shelves February 27th Brian Selznick. Honey. We’ve got to talk. Now look, it was all well and good when you started getting a little crazy and shaking up notions of what […]
I almost feel as though early chapter books are the Part Two to yesterday’s easy books. If one gently guides kids on the path towards self-sufficient reading, the other certainly drills home how capable child readers have become. And, like easy books, there’s a wide range of reading levels at play here. Some of these […]
Coyote Tales By Thomas King Groundwood Books $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-55498-833-4 Ages 7 to 12 On shelves now The older I get the more I like tricksters. I can’t think why that might be. By rights tricksters fall into the strict purview of children. Think of Bugs Bunny and Pippi Longstocking and R2-D2. I could make […]
Charlie & Mouse By Laurel Snyder Illustrated by Emily Hughes Chronicle Books $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-4521-3153-5 Ages 6-9 On shelves April 11th Only the jaded should write reviews of children’s books. Oh, it makes sense! Think about it. Children’s books are where the saccharine and overblown and overbearing go to die. Things that wouldn’t cut it […]
Princess Cora and the Crocodile By Laura Amy Schlitz Illustrated by Brian Floca Candlewick Press $16.99 ISBN: 978-0-7636-4822-0 Early Chapter Book On shelves March 28th What if. What if Good Night Moon had been illustrated by someone other than Clement Hurd? What if. What if Charlotte’s Web had had an artist who wasn’t Garth Williams? […]
Alongside yesterday’s easy book list, this is the other list that could have been a little beefier this year. Not a lot of racial diversity to be found, to be frank. That fault lies with me, not the books published in 2016. Still, with that in mind, this list is a collection of great books […]
Juana and Lucas By Juana Medina Candlewick Press $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-7636-7208-9 Ages 6-9 On shelves now Windows. Mirrors. Mirrors. Windows. Windowy mirrors. Mirrory windows. Windows. Mirrors. Sliding doors! Mirrors. Windows. In the world of 21st century children’s literature, diversity should be the name of the game. We want books for our children that reflect the […]