From: Kirstin <ktonning>
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 09:26:03 -0700

I've always found this a hard group to find good books for, so I love collecting all of your ideas! Thanks!

My favorite publisher for "bridge" books is North-South. They have several books (I don't know how they classify them) that are all about the same size--they feel like chapter books to the kids and have more advanced vocabulary, but they still have full-color illustrations. There is more print on a page than books like Frog and Toad or Poppleton, but the print is still a little larger with more white space than many chapter books. Favorites with strong readers in first grade and with 2-3 grade students have been Loretta and the Little Fairy by Gerda Marie Scheidl and the Rinaldo the Sly Fox books by Ursel Scheffler. Though we have to read them in translation, I also like exposing the kids to some foreign authors.

After students have moved past the Frog and Toad and Poppleton phases and are looking for early chapter books, Cynthia Rylant's Thimbleberry Stories and The Van Gogh Cafe are wonderful. I've had a few students enjoy The Islander, as well, but it's harder for them to understand than the former two. Daniel Pinkwater is another favorite with many children, but epecially with 1-4th grade boys. His books play around with some different text sizes, book sizes, etc.

Kirstin Tonningsen Portland, OR
Received on Thu 04 Oct 2001 11:26:03 AM CDT