Unfortunately, sometimes too many choices can be overwhelming, and because chapter books are chronically under-screened and under-reviewed compared to books in other categories, it’s hard to know what’s good. The good news is? There are a LOT of new things on the market for this reading group. The bad news is? A lot of them haven’t aged so well.
OWLY BOOK SERIES SERIES
Some of my favourites were chapter book series – from The Chronicles of Narnia to The Saddle Club to Goosebumps and Bunnicula… I loved these stories. I was lucky enough to be allowed to read whatever I wanted, and I read a lot. I was that kid who used to bring their maximum number of library loans home every week, and had to carry a stack after the Scholastic order came into my classroom in elementary school. Part of the fun of this for me was rediscovering the books that in large part made me who I am today. Photo from the 2nd and Charles Facebook page, May 22 2019.
OWLY BOOK SERIES FREE
At the time, I was co-parenting, and one of my favourite things to do was to bring the kids to these sales and give them free rein to pick whatever books looked good, and then spend time sitting at one of the kids’ tables with them, discussing what we were going to bring home and why it was awesome. They have a massive selection in a clean and well-organized space, and they often do ridiculous sales.
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This store is an oasis of used kids’ books. There was a period of my life when I was spending a lot of time in suburban Colorado, and probably once a week I found myself at the 2nd and Charles in Aurora. I hope that my recommendations can make finding the gems a little bit easier for those who are overwhelmed! When you’re looking at kids who are still learning to read independently, though, finding really good chapter books, early readers, and graphic novels for the developing (or “reluctant”) reader can be super challenging. Board books are catching up, and there’s starting to be some good MG out there. For a while now, there has been fantastic YA to choose from, and picture books are getting better and better every day.
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Our store specializes in social justice and diversity, so as curators and booksellers, we are very mindful and selective about the books that we choose. The bookshop where I work is in a neighbourhood with a lot of young families in it, and we also do the majority of our business with the local school boards. This is a post that I’ve been meaning to make for a while, and it’s a total bookseller post, but I hope that it will be useful to parents and kidtlit writers as well. Thanks to some inspiration from one of my clients, Marissa Ellor, I’ve decided to finally write a comprehensive list of chapter book recommendations. Before I get into content, I do want to throw up a new Enby Book List that I discovered on Twitter this week! Compiled by Jeanne G’Fellers, this is a new resource that I’ve now added to the BBB Links and Resources page! This is a great list, especially if you’re looking for indie or harder to discover titles featuring non-binary authors and characters.