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The 2016 Holiday Recommendations Post!

This is the post in which I will be answering your book recommendation questions this holiday season. I had fun with this in 2014 and 2015 so here we go again! If you would like a book recommendation leave me a comment or send me an email (alysa@evereadbooks.com) Images will link to the Amazon page for each book, and if you shop through these links I earn a small commission.


Queen of Books? Me? Oh I don't deserve it. Thank you, thank you.


Books on Gratitude what about a children's book on gratitude for Thanksgiving?

Does I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen count? That bear says "Thank you anyway" an awful lot. hehe. Just kidding. 



I really enjoyed Let The Whole Earth Sing Praise by Tomie dePaola. The text is based on Old Testament scripture, though it's more paraphrased than quoted. I think it's beautiful and interesting. The cover gives you a good idea of what the interior illustrations are like, a little different from his other books that I've read.

Silly books for under 5 Any funny/silly books for kids under age five?
Loads! There are so many of these. I won't say The Book With No Pictures because: overplayed. How about Bedtime for Mommy? Really almost any picture book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal fits the bill. That one is particularly silly and sweet. Little Pea is about a little green pea who hates eating his candy. Little Hoot is about an owlet who wants to go to bed. Little Oink is about a piglet who wants to clean up. My kids love all of these because of the way they flip the narrative. Shh We Have a Plan is listed below. Dragon Puncher is truly wacky and every under 5 I've ever read it to loves it. I love it, because it's obviously a labor of love from father to son, but it really is quite stupid. I mean that in the best possible way. :D I bought it and the sequel. 



 


Books for a 10 year old boy: specifically a boy who is and advanced reader and "loves science and fantasy and is getting into some sci fi."



At the Scholastic book fair I happened upon Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Really Looked Like? and remembered what a good book it is. It goes into detail about the science behind dinosaurs. Though it looks like a picture book when it's sitting on the shelf, the text is deep and complex and the illustrations are great. Did you know that scientists have found some preserved dinosaur skin? I did not know that before I read this book. I loved how it showed the evolution of what scientists thought dinos looked like in the early days (quite funny), more recently (what I remember!) and now (so much more complete). 

Books for a 7 year old boy:
specifically a boy who loves science and fantasy and is an advanced reader.



Have you heard of Adam Shaughnessy's FIB series? It starts with The Trickster's Tale; and book two, Over the Underworld, is also out. I confess I haven't yet read these myself, but my eight year old loves them, and the author was a teacher at his elementary school. They follow Pru and Abe, who have to save their town from Viking gods and giants wreaking havoc.



Books for a 6 year old girl:
She is reading chapter books like Junie B Jones and is really into science and animals. 




No Monkeys, No Chocolate is a non-fiction picture book in our collection. It talks about all the connections between the cocoa tree and it's environment. From midges and maggots to lizards and monkeys, all the pieces are needed to get that chocolate to us. Pair this book with a chocolate bar, of course!

Books for a 2.5 year old girl who is not very picky, so maybe just a good children's book we should add to our collection. We have a lot of classics but almost no new new books. 



I have to recomment Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton. It follows four siblings who are trying to catch a bird in the forest. Simple text and hilarious illustrations make it easy for kids to read and fun for parents to read to them. 



I also have to recommend  I Am The Wolf and Here I Come by  Bénédicte Guettier. I talked about it and put up some pictures here. It is just so much fun. Jubilee was right around 3 when we discovered it and I wish I owned it. 

Books for a 6 year old boy: reading chapter books, he loves Magic Tree House, graphic novels, science and adventure. 



My kids have loved The A-Z Mysteries at about the same time they were loving Magic Tree House. Have you found those yet? Really any of the books on my list of 9 First Chapter Books would be fun. 



The Pablo and Jane graphic novel is one we checked out of the library recently. Levi (age 6) enjoyed it for the story, but said the seek and find part of it was probably better for 7 year olds. :D  

Books for a 4 year old boy who loves to flip through and loves to be read to. He struggles with speech, so maybe something that can practice speech sounds? 




Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli is an absolute favorite of the 6 and under crowd at my house. As far as practicing sounds, I don't know if it would help with that, but it's been one of their favorites to read alone and one of their favorites to have me read. The book only has two words: "Higher" and "Hi." So once I had read it to them a couple of times I would find them reading it on their own all the time. 

Do you have a favorite body book that talks about the different parts/systems?

 

 Hmm, we have a body book that we bought at the book fair some years back, but it's a real pain to read and came with parts that got lost all over the place. I can't recommend it. The book I like about bodies is Who Has What? by Robie Harris. I bet I would like other books by her if I read them. 

Books for a 9 year old boy average reader, likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Plants vs. Zombies, but not Big Nate



I can't say enough good about Doug TenNapel's books. I recommend starting with Ghostopolis or Cardboard. They're well-done graphic novels with good storytelling and positive messages. 





Books for a 6 year old almost 7 year old who reads comfortably at a 4-5th grade reading level. Series recommendations would be great.

Well I have to say that any kid who reads that well is obviously reading for pleasure! So if I'm you I'm not going try to find a series that challenges their reading capability. Instead I'm going to try to find a series that broadens their horizons and helps them learn more while staying age appropriate. You could definitely check into this post I did for a third grader -- lots of good series there.  That said I just have to highlight one of my favorite series for kids, The Alvin Ho series by Lenore Look.



These books are laugh-out-loud funny, and I have been known to read them aloud to a group of teens and adults with good success. My kids also love them. They follow first-grader Alvin, who has "so-so performance anxiety disorder" and therefore can't speak at all at school. The series only has 5 volumes at the moment, but trust me, they're worth reading. 

Want your own recommendation? Leave a comment below or email me at alysa@evereadbooks.com 

Happy Reading!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for the recommendations, Alysa! They were spot on for what I was looking for. You're the best!

    ReplyDelete

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