From: Clare Ferguson <clare.ferguson>
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 15:25:43 -0400

I have a nine year old daughter who is an avid reader. Somewhere around the end of 1st grade, at 7 yrs old she decided to move on to "chapter books" It was certainly not my decision to take away picture books but she was very clear about what she wanted.

I started her on two series. The Magic Tree House books and Pony Pals. While she read these, I read her Black Beauty, Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander, The Secret Garden and Five Children and It by E. Nesbit among others.

She got to the point where each new book took her 15 minutes to read and she was still hungry. She was into dogs so I bought her Shiloh. She loved it and also read the sequels. Once she started Harry Potter it was if she'd died and gone to heaven. She's read each one 5 or 6 times.

I think what I'm saying is that even though her series books weren't all that stimulating she was proud to read them herself and I kept up with
"better" books until her reading caught up to them. She read A Little Princess on her own last year when she was 8 and it's still her favourite (apart from HP; he seems to be in a separate category)

Now that she's a very competent reader she's less insistent on challenging books. She reads everything. She really likes her Horsepower Magazine as well as New Moon. Non fiction books about animals are also great.

Somewhere along the way she read the Animal Ark series but I can't remember where they fit in.

Clare
Received on Tue 02 Oct 2001 02:25:43 PM CDT