Very cool. You really are good at your job Mary Anne.

My girls haven't been too interested in Nonfiction books. Occasionally they come home with one about butterflies or cats or dogs though.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I was ready for a change. I've been reading those little kid books to my girls for 5 years now. A lot of times I'm reading the same ones over and over. I decided its time to introduce my 5 year old to books that actually contain chapters (not counting Mudge).

So this summer we started out with Charlotte's Web. It was over her head and I had to explain a lot. I never realized how hard it would be to explain to a 5 year old why a spider writing words in a web would make the people think the pig was something special. Eat the pig, the spider is where the excitement is!

Next we tried a book she wanted because it had 2 girls in ballerina clothes on the front. The title was not memorable, and was a bit of a let-down to my girl when dancing wasn't mentioned again after chapter 2.

After that we read Romona the Pest. This one caught her interest. She like it a lot, since Romona was going throough her Kindergarten year and Jess starts Kindergarten in the fall. A lot of the humor was above her, but since it was well done it made it more interesting for me. (I really did barely make it through Charlottes Web)

I found some more Ramona books. We'll tackle those after we finish Junie B. Jones. I just read the first 8 chapters to her tonight. I'm pretty disappointed in it, since the language is the language of a child. Its cute for older people, but I'm one that's always been a little uncomfortable reading Cookie Monster books, because of his improper English. :) Also Junie has quite a mouth on her, I find myself reading just a bit ahead to see if "stupid" or "dumb" really needs to be read. Sometimes it does, mostly not. (At least I don't say blankety blank like my parents did) The next irksome thing is Junie B Jones does not exactly have the intellect of a kindergartner. More like a pre-preschooler in my opinion. Oh well, it reads fast and should finish up in one more night, and we can get back to Ramona, who does have more up-to speed kindergarten intellect.

One totally unintended perk to reading these books is the effect on my 2 year old. Both girls listen intently even though there are few pictures if any. The 2 year old still gets her favorite 5 (Sesame Street 'B' book, Touch and Feel Puppies, Touch and Feel Kittens, Little Grown Ups, and Go Dog Go) but she falls asleep easily afterwards listening to Jessica's 'big kid' stories.

So, Mary Anne. Any suggestions about other authors at a 5+ yr old level?

-Steve G.