Chapter Books or a Good Series

Winnie the Pooh and the related poetry books like Now We are Six. Also agree with the Shel Silverstein recommendation.

I started with all the Shel Silverstein books when my kids were that age. "Where the sidewalk ends" and "A light in the attic"...you can choose how ever many poems you want to read each night and my boys LOVED how crazy some of them were.

I just started The Littles with my 4.5 year old girl. She is loving the books--though I do some "editing" because they do talk about "getting killed" a lot. I usually say "getting hurt." I loved all Beverly Clearly books as a kid. I bet boys would like Otis Spofford and Mouse on a Motorcycle. Anyway, it really is fun and my daughter pays attention and listens really well--surprisingly so! We usually talk about what we've just read and I ask her questions. Have fun!!

I think it a GREAT idea. I read to our girls every nigh as young children. Now they are 12 and 14 and I have to PRY the books out of their hands just to go to bed at night. I am trying to remember what I read and what they took an interested in: He might be to young for this but the girls LOVED the Junie B Jones series they are silly and funny and they help the kids understand grown up things better "In a kids eyes." Whatever books you deside to read, I suggest reading them for the first time alone so that you won't be floored and you won't have to explain the whole book. Because that alone will make you Crazy, I 'VE LEARNED THE HARD WAY!!!
Have fun and enjoy the time together,

There are so many great book for kids that I can't begin to name them all, but here are some collections that all four of my kids loved: Magic Tree House; Stink; Junie B. Jones; Captain Underpants; and Judy Moody. I could go on and on :)

Good luck!

I think he might enjoy "The Magic Tree House" series.

There are also books called Great Illustrated Classics. Which are the classics, like Peter Pan, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, etc, written for young children.

We started with James and the Giant Peach.

My son loves the Magic Treehouse series. It's about a brother and sister that go on adventures via a magic treehouse. It's broken up by chapter and the chapters aren't terribly long. You could check one out at the library but I just bought one today for less than $4 at Target!

We read Charlottes Wed, Swan Lake and one other one. Puppy place books are super cute. My son just got Mercy Watson book...it's about a funy little pig. He reads on his own a lot now but he said it was good b/c there were chapters but it had LOTS of pictures. We would buy books that had multiple stories in it...like 7 or 8 disney stories. They take forever to read but it's just like the movie...so as they listen they can also picture whats going on. It's fun to compare the book to the movie later--and makes for great comprehension.

I read my son Treasure Island as his first chapter book. He loved it. He was about 5. Go with the classics!

start with the magic treehouse. book number 1 I think there are about 40 of them now. such good books and when he gets done with kindergarten or in first grade he will be ready to read them on his own.

I think that chapter books may not work well yet for a four year old. As for series, Mercer Mayer has a great series of short books - Little Critter or Just for you. Example - Just me and my Mom, Just me and my Grandpa, Just me and my puppy or I'm so Mad etc. My kids loved these books so much.

Also, I loved reading the Franklin books to my kids. The illustrations are colorful, and Franklin gets into trouble enough to make it interesting. They are longer than the Mercer Mayer books. If he like the PBS Franklin tv show they should hold his attention.

The first chapter book my kids loved was Mouse Soup by Arnold Loeble. Try that one. There are several short stories that tie together.

Good luck and happy reading.

My son (also 4) and I are reading the Nate the Great series and the Lionel books together. He is an early reader, so these books are great because although they are "chapter books" they have clear, simple text and straightforward stories.

We also love the Curious George stories.

Hope this helps.

T.

Usborne Illustrated Storybook for Boys is good. It's a collection of stories. Also any book of fairy tales is good. The usual fairy tales work for both boys and girls. In fact we just bought the complete collection of Faery Tale Theater with Shelly Long on DVD because my boys love fairy tales. I just read Amy's Eyes by Richard Kennedy to my son this year and he was 7 at the time, but it's a great story (I mean GREAT, read the reviews online). Maybe wait until he's a little older for it though, since it does deal a little bit with more adult themes like death and spirituality. However, get a copy NOW if you can because it's not in print any more and it's tough to find. Amazon.com usually has used copies in various conditions on consignment, but they go quickly because it's so popular. You can also pick up the I Can Read books from Borders (or wherever you can find them). They're about all different sort of things so you have a selection and they are for different levels of readers. The Frog and Toad books are great and don't forget about the good old Berenstein Bears. We also loved the Serendipity books as kids like Dragolin (my favorite) and I'm now collecting them for my kids. The illustrations are beautiful and the stories all have a nice moral to them. Also try Aesop's Fables. Kids really love these and again, they all teach a nice lesson.

Hope this at least got you to a starting point! lol! I could go on for hours about books, I'm a total bookworm and a homeschooler so books are almost literally taking over my house! :) Good for you on reading to him. They're never too young to love a great story.

One more thing, don't forget the greatest story ever told. There are great children's bibles out there available for purchse. Usborne has a good one in fact.

I second the Magic Treehouse books. We have 4 boys and they all LOVE them. I find my 10 yo going back to them occasionally. My boys also enjoyed the Junie B Jones series although its about a little girl. They found the situations involving many classmates and friends of Junie so amusing.

The Frog and Toad books are great for that age.

I also highly recommend The Zack Files, a series of about 30 books, starting with Great Grand-pa's in the Litter box. These are laugh out loud books about a nine year old boy who has all sorts of paranormal adventures. The Magic Tree house books are great up until about book 25 when she gets more "teachy" and less fun. Someone else suggested Captain Underpants, which can't miss with the four-year old boy crowd. He may also enjoy the Dragon Slayer's Academy series by Kate McMullan.