Thanks for all the ideas. We just added some Chet Gecko, and I'll be ordering more
from you list of suggestions.
My original post was:
I am looking to add a series for 2nd or 3rd grade level readers. In particular,
I'd like something that appeals to boys. We already have:
A-Z Mysteries
Bailey School Kids
Boxcar Children
Cam Jansen
Captain Underpants
Dragon Slayer's Academy
Geronimo Stilton
Goosebumps
Horrible Harry
Jigsaw Jones
Kids of Polk Street
Magic Tree House
Nate the Great
Secrets of Doon
Time Warp Trio
Young Cam Jansen
Zack Files
Responses from the list:
Chet Gecko (mystery series with a reading level of upper 3rd grade and there are at
least 10 titles in the series)
Cul-de-Sac Kids
Dragonling books by Jackie Koller French. I can sometimes hook young Harry Potter
fans with those books
Einstein Anderson books by Seymour Simon (OOP)
Fudge books by Judy Blume
Hank the Cow Dog by John R. Erickson
Marvin Redpost series by Louis Sachar
Moongobble and Me series by Bruce Coville
Sammy Keyes
Scooby-Doo chapter books
Soccer Cats
Stink, Judy Moody's little brother. "Stink: the Incredible Shrinking Kid." The
second book will be out in April.
Here's what we have that particularly appeals to boys at my K-5
school, but is not already on your list:
Animorphs by Applegate
Arthur chapter books
Berenstain Bears chapter books
Calvin and Hobbes (20 copies are always out)
Chet Gecko by Bruce Hale (a must, humor appeals to reluctant readers
and good ones)
Choose Your Own Adventure
Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda
Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
Hank the Cowdog by John Erickson
Henry and Mudge
Marvin Redpost by Louis Sachar
Matt Christopher sports books
Pokemon (I know... out of print, TV tie in... but these chapter books
convince many boys to start reading...)
Rowan of Rin by Emily Rodda
Shredderman by Wendelin Van Draanen
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
Star Wars (can't help you on which series... but I know we need more...)
Stink Files (these remind me of Chet Gecko; detective this time is a
British cat)
Spiderwick by DiTerlizzi
This is just the guy-specific part of our series list. Series are
something I have concentrated on beefing up at our library, because
they draw so many kids into reading more of everything else.
The only other one on the list, hugely popular with reluctant boys
from 3rd-8th (!), is Tin-Tin by Herge. These are comic book format,
with an amazing amount of text (that's the sneaky part). I would
recommend choosing them individually, as I have had individual titles
challenged twice (sigh), and the principal would rather pull them
than answer the challenge. I'd rather not post that part, since I
don't have the know-how to solve this problem... yet.
If series are important to your kids, I'd love to swap more info with
you. The library community doesn't take series very seriously. If you
are interested, I'd recommend a paper by Catherine Ross "If they read
Nancy Drew, so what?". A short form of the article is readily
available (first ref below), and if you have access to any library
school literature on-line, the more complete paper (an ALA prize
winner, 35 pages long) is available too.
Ross, Catherine (1997, May/June), Reading the covers off Nancy Drew:
what readers say about series books, Emergency Librarian, 24.Ross,
Catherine (1995), If they read Nancy Drew, so what?, Library and
Information Science Research, 17.
Jackie Richardson
Library Media Specialist
Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School
10 Gerstein Street
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520
(914) 271-5184 x220
jrichardson@croton-harmonschools.org
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