We love series books at our house! By reading several books about the same characters, we really feel like we get to know the characters, the kids develop a deeper understanding and create a longer memory of the books.
Here are some of our favorites:
The Rainbow Fairies
These are the perfect solution for the 4-8 aged girl who is ready for more grown-up looking chapter books, but doesn't have the reading skills to master reading independently yet. Each book has a similar flow to it, so after hearing a couple of books my five year old was able to fly through them on her own.
Magic Tree house
These are very popular and I love how they teach about historical events. Hearing my four year old discuss the Revolutionary War and Ancient Greece always made for some interesting discussions. One of the best things to do while reading this series is visit this Magic Treehouse Site where your child can answer a few comprehension questions about the books, print out a "passport" sticker of the book. We collected all of the passports from each book and kept them in a binder. They loved it and were very motivated to fill up their passports.
Little House on the Prairie
There are a couple of different book options with these. There are the big chapter books that I remember reading as a girl and now they have easier to read chapter books that are perfect for 5-8 year olds. They have illustrations and are just the right length and wording to hold interest for this age. My daughters have been playing "Mary" and "Laura" and pioneers for quite some time now. These books prompted a trip to Living History Farms where it was easily one of the best family memories of the year.
American Girl
I have posted about the American Girl books before. They are good quality literature and I love the viewpoint of all these females overcoming obstacles and being positive (but not always perfect...this makes for more interesting reading)!
The Boxcar Children
This endearing story that I remember as a girl is still around today! The Boxcar Children is about four siblings who find an old boxcar and make it into a home. Yes it true, none of the rest of the series anywhere matches the ingenuity of the first book, but they are still fun to read.
My kids get so involved when we are reading a series that the characters and story lines spill over into their play. We've had a boxcar become recreated in our basement, Laura and Mary from The Little House on the Prairie books appear at breakfast in pioneer clothes, Jack and Annie from The Magic Treehouse books have encountered dinosaurs, traveled to the moon and survived a stay in a dungeon, all without leaving our house!
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