Book Suggestions for...

[baileygirl]

I am looking ahead to Christmas presents and I want to get my niece a chapter book as part of her Christmas gift. She is in 3rd grade, a tomboy and gets extra help at school for reading. Any suggestions on something she might like?

[katydid1971]

If she's a low reader she might like Junie B Jones.

[npace19147]

The Ramona series by Beverly Cleary is excellent.

[zag95]

Ramona would actually be perfect because Ramona is a bit of a tomboy and the same age. You could see if anyone reads the book, so she could follow along- sometimes authors read their own books.

[ett]

Ramona would actually be perfect because Ramona is a bit of a tomboy and the same age. You could see if anyone reads the book, so she could follow along- sometimes authors read their own books.

The later Ramona books would be the same age as her. The early ones start when she was 4. The kids were listening to Ramona Quimby, age 8 on audio cd this weekend in the car. It's narrated by Stockard Channing.

[lalasmama]

Another vote for Ramona!

We love Ramona (and Beverly Cleary) because they are "local" gals. Mrs Cleary was born in the same town I was, grew up near where I grew up, moved to Portland as a child (just like I did in 5th grade!), and then set the Quimby family in Portland.

I think DD sees a lot of herself in Ramona. We started with the young Ramona books, where she's 4. At one point, Ramona writes in a book because she loves it so much. DD knew when we were reading it that it was "naughty", but she could totally empathize with Ramona wanting to keep the book, and writing her name on it to make it hers. She could also understand how Ramona felt with a bossy older sister (like an older daycare friend who would try to boss DD), and having a BFF that's a boy (she seemed to get along with boys better for many years). As she's gotten older, we've watched Ramona have issues with spelling--just like DD does--and we've heard Ramona say, "Why does it matter how I spell? You know what I mean!" just like DD has asked many times.

The vocabulary was slightly challenging for DD in 2nd grade, but she was able to use some context clues to work out what the word likely was, and would ask me when she didn't understand something, or couldn't figure out what a word was, or what it meant.

DD also still loves Junie B. I've grown to accept Junie B. If she gets DD to read, well, then, I suppose she's okay. But she does use words like "stupid" and introduces some concepts that I didn't expect (cheating because she forgot to do her homework, "boyfriends"/crushes, etc). Not saying that those things don't happen, but for my oblivious DD, even crushing on a cute boy isn't a thought she's had yet, and she's at the age where copying homework is a serious crime in her eyes, so it made her sad that Junie B. would do such a thing. Vocabulary wise, DD's been able to read Junie B. since late 1st grade on her own. The text is big, there's lots of pictures, and the language is just how a 1st grader would talk, so there's not many hard words to figure out.

[baileygirl]

Sounds like Ramona it is! Thanks for all of the suggestions!