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Rant: Berenstain books!
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Rant and need suggestions for very “easy readers” for a boy that are in good language and of good content.
Since my boy (7) finally picks up on reading we went to the library and I let him pick a book to read together. he is a VERY reluctant reader and if the content of a book is not of his interest there is no way he will touch the book! We read in school the Pathway Readers which he really enjoys. He picked “Berenstain Bears and the Galloping Ghost”. Well sounded ok for a boy, it is about a boy overcoming his fears of horses and the girl overcoming fears of ghosts that’s what the backcover said. Seems ok.Now here is an excerpt: ” And we just can’t afford to lose any money right now, ” said Miss Mamie. ” I’m already a month behind in my mortgage payments.” Gus scratched his head and said, ” Just a month? The Great Grizzly National Bank hasn’t ever bothered you about being a month or two behind, even three.” ” The bank doesn’t own my mortgage anymore,” said Miss Mamie. She handed Gus the letter she has been reading.” ‘ Property Management, ‘” Gus read aloud. “Hmm. Looks like this folks musta taken over your mortgage. Now that seems kinda funny, don’t it?
I am just speechless !!! What a piece of junk to give to our children! The language, you have to be kidding me??? The morals??? Hey what”s wrong with not paying your mortgage?? The bad bankers?? I am horrified now to let my children go to the library and pick a book 🙁
We love Little Bear and Frog and Toad books for early readers. My Father Dragon was the first good chapter book that each of my older kids read.
This is interesting..for we have loved a ton of Berenstain Bears! I never heard of this book though. This one sounds disappointing!
As for the language, you find all sorts of slang and southern/northern in many classics. But, I agree the library is becoming a sad twaddly place!
Snipp, Snapp, Snurr (triplet boys) and Flicka, Ricka, Dicka (triplet girls) are sweet and good morals — they work hard, make mistakes, fix them. Billy & Blaze?? There are some nice “I Can Read” or “Step Into Reading” level books that are history based.
Step Into Reading step 2 or 3 would be good: Balto and Christopher Columbus are both step 2, one about Whales: Gentle Giants, I think; Pompeii…Buried Alive and there’s one a little Mexican vilage where a little volcano began — those might be the next level,Titanic Lost & Found and Sea of Ice which are higher up and more text, longer paragraphs, etc.
“An I Can Read Book” has a different level system, but there’s lots of good ones at level, but look through the stacks at your library to see what’s a good fit: Daniel’s Duck, Sam the Minuteman, The Drinking Gourd, Clipper Ship, etc. (Frog & Toad are at level 2 in this series.) There are actually lots of good ones (more than I expected as I am not typically a fan of early readers in terms of content, but I’ve found that the ones that are a bit more historical in nature are more tolerable and definitely help fill the need of building fluency while still giving them something interesting to read about.
My kids liked Henry and Mudge books at that age, also Frog and Toad, Mr. Putter and Tabby, Dr. Seuss, Poppleton. That’s all I can think of right now. Some of those might be considered twaddly, but we liked them anyway! The problem that I have with the Berenstain Bears is that they always make the dad look like an idiot and the mom is the wise one. Not exactly the type of family dynamics we hope our boys emulate.
@jeaninpa: i totally agree! i never cared for the Berenstein Bears when my children and I think you’ve nailed it! Frog and Toad were popular here and most books by Lobel.
Well, Stan Berenstain passed away in 2005 and Jan Berenstain in 2012. Their son, Mike, has continued publishing the series, but perhaps the series content has changed.
another vote for Henry and Mudge, Frog and Toad, My Father’s Dragon (one offering comes with a CD….excellent version of the reading, i.e. enthusiastic and made it exciting…if you did the CD, your son could follow along for his first time reading it and then read it alone…)…it would give some meat as it’s a lengthier book.
Anything by Clyde Bulla, as stated above!
And another yes for Billy and Blaze!! My boys loved these at age 7-8
Another idea I don’t think I saw listed above is a series by Cynthia Rylant called “The High Rise Private Eyes” It’s in the I Can Read umbrella and usually listed as #2 (reading with help); some of the series are a #3 (reading alone). The plots are mystery based but totally harmless and often quite hilarious. They are about 50 pages per book (big font size) and illustrated. I ended up purchasing at least 7 of them from http://www.bookdepository.com when I saw them come on there because, although they had the series at my library, my boys seemed to enjoy having them around regularly and reading often… I wouldn’t rank it as high quality literature but definitely not as twaddly as many other series that seem to be out there for this not-yet-reading-well-and-independently level. So much of it is really poor, in my opinion.
HTH! Angie
Oh, Nate the Great is usually pretty clean and easy to read as is Encyclopedia Brown (but those are longer).
How about Dr. Seuss/Theo LeSeig (or something like that)? LOVE his books!! They all/most have a moral too. Cat in the Hat, Ten Apples Up on Top, Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, Wacky Wednesday, Mr. Brown Can Moo…
I have my Berenstain Bears books from when I was a child and have no problem with the conent, we really like them. I would think maybe the more recent ones are where you see the change (like someone said earlier)? For me, I’m not going to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater here, but maybe stick with the older ones…That being said, we also like Frog and Toad, Little Bear, some Dr. Seuss, the Marley books, Curious George, Syd Hoff books (which are all at the library) and our Pathway readers for early readers around here 🙂
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