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My son (almost 5) is well into early chapter books now. With my baby girl’s arrival and my subsequent absence from the blogosphere (as compared to my posting habits before her birth), I haven’t posted on his reading as frequently as it deserves. I feel like his reading skills improve from week to week!

Back in March, I posted about the early readers he was enjoying, including Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold and P.J. Funnybunny books by Marilyn Sadler. Now, just six months later, I feel we’ve skipped into an entirely new category. Here are some of the early chapter books he currently enjoys.

In addition to books mentioned in other posts, one main series that Raisin has been enjoying in the past few months is the Young Cam Jansen series by David Adler. I had seen the Cam Jansen series before, but they were too far above my son’s level, mostly because they had too much text and too few pictures. The Young Cam Jansen stories provide the extra pictures that my young son needed with similar characteristic mysteries as the older books. My son enjoys “solving” mysteries with Cam, the girl with the photographic memory.

He has dabbled in some other series, but none of them have captured his attention quite as much as this has. Right now, he’s picked up some more challenging chapter books: a book from a series called the Pee Wee Scouts, a Mercy Watson book, and a Nate the Great book. I’ll get back to you on those!

The challenge for me is that he is not yet five years old, and many of the chapter books I see on the shelves had kids speaking rudely to each other or teachers (Dan Guttman books, Junie B. Jones). I’m hoping we can hold out on the “attitude talk” a little bit longer.

I am constantly in awe of the pace at which he is blossoming into a reader. Sometimes I wonder if he’s comprehending the stories, but then he’ll retell the story to me a few days after he’s read it, so I know he is. It’s fun to see him enjoying reading so much, and I look forward to seeing where his reading will take him next.

And as I say that, I’ll simply add that I’m also eager to restart the board books/picture books stage with my dear daughter (now 7 months!). She’s finally interested in everything I show her!

Reviewed on August 31, 2012

About the author 

Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid is a homeschooling, stay-at-home mother seeking to make the journey of life-long learning fun by reading lots of good books. Rebecca Reads provides reviews of children's literature she has enjoyed with her children; nonfiction that enhances understanding of educational philosophies, history and more; and classical literature that Rebecca enjoys reading.

  • I loved those Frog and Toad books when I was a kid! The one with the stupid swimming suit is my very favorite. Are y’all reading Arthur Lobel’s other books? The one I loved best as a kid (oh, the Little Bear ones were wonderful though!) was No Fighting, No Biting. But it might not resonate as much with Raisin, as he just has the one sibling and she is still very tiny. Legal Sister and I are quite close in age so there was some fighting/biting between us.

    • Jenny » I grew up with Frog and Toad but I admit I haven’t read many of Lobel’s other books. I’ll have to look for some of them. Thanks for the suggestion. And you’d be surprised….Raisin has bit Strawberry once already! (He said “well, she put her hand in my mouth!” Ok, dear, and you thought she meant to?!)

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