Magic Tree House Series Ages 6 to 9 grades 1 to 4

Many years ago, when my son was a preschooler, we were introduced to the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osbourne.  Little did I realize that it would be apart of our lives for almost another 4 years!  Eventually I  became VERY burned out on them, but I have to admit, that they were a wonderful well thought out collection of books!

When my son was 4 almost 5 I started reading them to my son.  He just loved the adventures and at the time dinosaurs were the bomb with him.  The early half of the series is written for 6 to 9 year old's, grades 1 to 4.  In Dinosaurs Before Dawn brother and sister Jack and Annie stumble upon a tree  house that only they can see.  They climb into the tree house and see all these wonderful books all around them.  One of them accidentally says "I wish we could go there" and before they know it they are whisked off to another time and place.  They realize that they are in a "magic" tree house that belongs to Morgan Le Fay and they start picking up clues as they go.  Next they are whisked off to the Middle Ages in The Knight at Dawn, Ancient Egypt in    Mummies in the Morning and Pirates Past Noon.  The adventures are set in groups of 4, where they find clues, and solve riddles to help save Camelot.  What is also great about this series is the Nonfiction companion books-fact trackers.  Like for  Mummies in the Morning there is  Mummies and Pyramids.  There is also a Dinosaurs , Pirates and Knights and Castles.  In  the next 24 books they have many adventures with Ninjas, Moon, Civil War, Revolutionary War, India, and so many more.

The Next set of books are considered the Merlin Missions, I remember them being slightly more advanced than the first set.  But they have many cool adventures too.  They meet Leonardo DeVinci, and they go to Paris, New York, Japan, China and the Middle East and so many other places.

When my son was in Kindergarten and he was reading ton his own,  we used these books as our social studies lessons. We would follow the books from 1 all the way through 50 each week.  So the first week we studied Dinosaurs and read lots of supporting books and did activities too, then Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages and on and on.  I really felt like after a year and a half he had had a very well rounded education!

Then there is the Magic Tree House web site Where they can play games and they can take a short quiz after reading a book and get a passport stamp. There is even Random House activities to download .

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Beast Quest by Adam Blade

Does your child like action and adventure?  Then The Beast Quest Series is for them!  These books are for 7 to 10 year old's, grades 2 to 5th.  My son spent last summer reading through most of the series that at this time there are about 84 books in the series, all about 90 pages long.  They were first published in 2007 and there are plans to publish more. I found it interesting that Adam Blade is a pen name and that there are actually several authors.

In the first book Ferno the Fire Dragon it sets up the story about a boy whose being raised by his uncle because his father has disappeared.  Terrible things are happening in his village and he goes to the king to ask for help.  When he gets there he meets a wizard and learns that his father was a hero.  Terrible things all across the kingdom are happening because of an evil wizard, so the king sends our little hero Tom to fight these beast and free them from the spell/lock put on them by the evil wizard .  In the first book our hero meets a girl and her wolf and together with Tom's trusty steed, they go on an Epic adventure In the next five books; Sepron the Sea Serpent, Cypher the Mountain Giant, Tagus the Night Horse, Tartok the Ice Beast and Epos the Winged Beast !

In the Next 6 books our hero is to receive a beautiful suit of armor , but the evil wizard appears again and he takes a six pieces and leaves them through out the kingdom.. Our hero Tom and his companions again set out on an adventure to gather the suit, fight monsters, he learns more about his missing father and bring peace to the kingdom.  Okay, well I admit it.  At this point I stopped reading and my son continued.  He loved these books and would be really excited to get more!

I hope that you and your family will enjoy this series and have lot of fun and adventure!

The Who Was Series

When I was a freshman in college I took a class to help prepare me for college and how to be successful.  I really do not remember much about the class, but one thing stood out all these years later!  If you do not know about something, start with juvenile books!  REALLY,  there is NO SHAME in being an adult and reading a juvenile book!  Honestly, if you are not a MAJOR history buff, I think they are FAR superior books.  Here is jokingly the way I see it.  When you are a writer for adults you add LOTS of information  (way to much) to prove just how much you know about the subject and to prove how smart you are.  As an adult, when I read a grown up book I will easily get completely overwhelmed by ALL of the facts that my brain just shuts down and I remember very little.  But when I read a juvenile book, it is like they just talk about the skeleton or the MOST IMPORTANT facts that holds everything together. Not the skin, guts, heart, veins, kidneys, etc., just the important stuff that your brain can more easily hold onto and not get overwhelmed!

The Who Was / Is and What Was series are very popular with my son and I.  The series will take a person or event and tell about it in easy to understand chapters.  They are written for 8 to 12 year old's or 3rd to 7th grade.  There are MANY to choose from, I would have to count, but I know at least 30 books are available and they just keep printing more.  What I love is that they will tell the many biographies, but important facts or other important people they will take a moment to explain who they/what they are too.  These books are really well illustrated too!

I use them for homeschooling our son.  I like to take several books and use a theme.  The picture up above we had used a Revolutionary War theme.  It was a wonderful collection for my literature based technique.  When my son read Who Was George Washington  he read about a man who served the British by fighting in the French and Indian war,  then later as things began to heat up between the Patriots and the British he sided with the Patriot and led the Minute Men into defeating the British.  Then you continued through Washington to see our nation grow.  Read Who was Paul Revere and you see that he was a patriot who MAY have been at the Boston Tea Party and of course there is the famous ride.  You get a glimpse of life from a Patriot, but again, you are seeing from his story the build up from the French and Indian war, to the start of the war and his war effort.  From Who WasThomas Jefferson you learn more about the Declaration of Independence and his efforts in building this great nation and how he served as 3rd president, Then Who Was Ben Franklin, you see a respected scientist, statesman, ambassador and newspaper owner and his part in this time in history.  By the time you come to What WasThe Boston Tea Party    then you get another view of the events that led up to the war.  Us teachers call this spiral learning.  They learn a bit, then they learn a bit more adding to what they know and then a bit more and I really felt after 5 books we had a really good feel for that era in history.

Hank the Cow Dog here!

It's me Hank the Cow Dog (not really)  head of ranch security, and I hear there are some little cowboys that are considered relookant, reluckant, reluctant readers.  That just means that they have not found any books that they love to read.  It is my job to give these little cowboys and girls some good yarns to follow and  as head of ranch security, I go on many adventures and meet many different friends.

On my many adventures I meet many interesting characters.  First there is Drover, my trusty right hand man who seems to always have a bad leg when there is danger.  Then the love of my life Beulah, oh Beulah, my beautiful collie.  Only problem is she thinks she is in love with a stupid bird dog names Plato.  But then there is Missy Coyote, but her dumb brother Scraunch want to kill me.  I sure have had some good times with Rip and Snort the coyote brother, but they are not the smartest coyotes.  Have I mentioned Pete, Pete the barncat!  Pete is just your typical dumb cat!    Then there is Madame Moonshine a mystic owl who helped me once get out of a little problem with Rufus the doberman pincer.

Then there are the humans.  First there is Slim Chance, he is just a ranch hand, but he treats me and Drover good and sometimes gives me bits of his sandwiches.  He often takes me out to help him work or into town and that can lead to an adventure or 2.  But lets just say he has saved me a few times from trouble, like when I was almost caught by the animal patrol. Then there is Little Alfred, Sally Mays son.  Little Alfred  and Hank have a special relationship and Hank says it is his sacred duty  "to protect and defend all innocent children against all manner of monsters and evil things."

I sure can spin a yarn or two or maybe about 65 of them.  There are plenty of books to read for our little cowboys and cowgirls.  I have been framed for eating chickens, made Sally May mad at me for eating my steaks, saved Madame Moonshine from the coyotes, Lived with the coyotes for awhile, drank mop water and took on Rufus, had adventures with a violin playing fox, saved a littler of cats and many many more!

Great graphic novels with Max Axiom

I believe a reluctant reader is really just a child who has not found a great book!  There are so many books out there!  Some required to read, some really boring and some children really can not relate to at all!  But writers have become aware that there is one technique that kids really love, GRAPHIC NOVELS and they can even sneak in a little science lesson in too!  Double bonus!  Kids are happy, parents are happy and teachers are happy!

My son has really enjoyed these new graphic novel about science With Max Axiom!!!  Max acquired super powers from being struck by lightening!  When he awoke he realized that he could  change his size, he became super smart and started teaching science in a super cool way!  Max Axiom tackles many scientific concepts like Investigating The Scientific Model, force and motion, and states of matter.  There are just to many titles to list!  There are at least 20 of them ranging from physics, chemistry, biology, and more!

These are geared for 8 to 14 year olds or 3rd to 4th grade reading level.  But trust me, Even as an adult reading through this series I still learn something new!

I hope that others will enjoy these little gems as much as we are!

Magic School Bus Chapter Books!

I have heard so many parents say "Magic School Bus, well I really do not like those books."  Parents admit they are really good informational books, but they just do not like how cluttered they are.  Oh but the TV show, WOW parents LOVE the tv show. And personally I too am a big fan of the show, but not the books!  I have since discovered that MOST parents have yet to discover the CHAPTER books, and it is my honor to introduce them to you if you have not yet been introduced.  I LOVE these books!  My 2nd grade science curriculum was based off these books!  These books were so good I had my son read them TWICE! Science, fun and adventure!!!  Who could go wrong with that?

 These books are geared to 7 to 10  year old's, and grades 2nd to 5th.  I found that each book I enjoyed adding experiments and other information to help bring it to life.

 The main series there are 20 books.  There is a wide variety of themes like bats, bones, whale watching, space, twisters, space travel insects sharks, electricity, and much more.  It has all the same kids you have come to love on the show.  And each book has a different child's point of view!

  Mrs Frizzle is , well, still Mrs. Frizzle.  Dorathy Ann is still the know it all, Carlos still tells jokes, Pheobe still says "at my old school" Arnold is still worried about everything and Liz is still so darn cool!  Can you tell even I am still a fan after all these years! 

After the main series there are a few Magic Bus Fact Finders for like bats, space and bones and there are 4 additional books on like Flodds and earthquakes.  I hope that you check these out and that your children will find them as fun as we did and get a little more science in!

Asterix

I first heard of Asterix back in 2009 when my husband, son and I vacationed in Belgium.  We stayed with a wonderful family who had a school age boy who had these comic books.  Later when  we were exploring Belgium, we also had dinner at a fast food restaurant that had Asterix prizes in the children's meals! Yes, Asterix is big in Europe!  It was started  in 1959 by Frenchman Rene Goscinny and later after his death a few other authors created more..  It is about a village with Gauls that are resisting, through magic potions, Roman rule.

Asterix is written in comic book style and children find them hilarious to read, the recommended reading level is 9 to 11 year old's or 4th to 6th grade..  Adults love them because even though they are historical fiction, they introduce children to the Romans, Caesars, Roman terminology, Gauls, Druids and the legionnaires. It depicts with a lot of humor what life was like back in 50 BC.

 There are 35 comic books in the series, but I tend to buy the omnibus, which is 3 books in one.  They follow the adventures of Astrix and children get an introduction to a lot of history and places that most American children rarely get any introduction too!  It starts in Gaul, but soon they are off with the Goths and gladiators, then Cleopatra, Britannia and Normans.  It is an amazing amount of cultures like Spain, Switzerland, Corsica and Belgium!

I highly recommend these, every mom and dad should have the opportunity to wake up in the morning and see peak at their child passionately reading and giggling!