It's always a little easier to find books for girls than for boys. My friend Crystal asked for ideas for her handsome readers, so here goes! I tried to choose books that might not be on the lists of great books that are easily found on the Internet.
Any and all Clyde Robert Bulla books. There are way too many to list, but every single one is good. The one I linked to is one I use with each of my first graders as we study the discovery of North America.
Homer Price and others by Robert McCloskey
The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth
The Bones on Black Spruce Mountain by David Budbill You'll not find this book on any list of great literature, but it captured my imagination as a child, and all of my children have enjoyed it as well. I forgot the name of the book, but gave the librarian at every library of every school that I worked the details I remembered. I searched in vain. Not one knew the story. When I was around 25 years old, I finally found a copy at a used book store. I was ecstatic!
My Side of the Mountain and its sequels by Jean Craighead George. These are fantastic.
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks Read all of the series.
The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden Another excellent series.
Any and all books by Gary Paulsen. We love them.
Oooh, thanks for the link to the brain exercises. I have a couple who are a bit challenged and need help to open those gates.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of The Bones.... book, but will have to check it out.
We're on a Bulla kick right now and have enjoyed the others you listed as well.
Thanks for posting this! It's funny, growing up my sisters and I had a large number of "boy" books read to us or by us--including Homer Price and The Enormous Egg, among others. Perhaps it was practice for my mom before the four boys came along. Based on our childhood reading I'd highly recommend the Henry Reed books (Henry Reed's Journey is rolling-on-the-floor funny!), The Mad Scientist's Club, and Farmer Boy. Other good ones are The Mushroom Planet books, The Twenty One Balloons, Snow Treasure, and the Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary. Now, pre-read everything (or at least check out some reviews on Amazon or something) because I'm finding that there are some books I read as a child that I am surprised by now and my guy has only gotten to Boxcar Children and Little House in the Big Woods as read-alouds so many of these I haven't re-read in years.
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