Chapter books for younger children

“Please Dad! Just one more chapter. Please?”

It’s evening time, the fire is crackling, and my brother and I are lying on the floor listening to another adventure from the Little House on the Prairie seriesby Laura Ingalls Wilder. Mum is sitting there too, and Dad is in his armchair reading the story with all the different voices to boot. Usually we got our request for another chapter — I suspect because our parents were just as keen as us to find out what happened next.

It’s one of my favourite memories of childhood—the evening read-aloud. It wasn’t just the book. It was the totality of the experience: the fire, the cosiness, the bonding of everyone sharing the story together. Laughing in the funny bits and crying in the sad bits. It is said that when an emotion is tied to an event it creates a memory and this is certainly the case for me. That half an hour of listening to a story every evening is a powerful childhood memory because it is associated in my mind with peace and contentment and warmth.

There comes a time in a child’s life, around five or six (if not earlier), when they are able to appreciate not just picture books, but also chapter books. When you read accounts of life in “the olden days”, the habit of reading aloud seemed to be quite a common one. Without all the entertainments that are readily available today, families would sit in the evening while one person read and everyone else did lovely creative things like knitting or whittling sticks. This idyllic picture has been shattered by the modern age of technology and distractions, but it’s still possible to create a little of that culture in our homes.

This habit of reading aloud more than anything else can spark a love for reading in the life of a young child. This has nothing to do with reading levels, or comprehension tests, or how well Johnny can read by age seven. It’s not being able to decode that will turn our children into readers; it’s about giving them a love of literature.

And why is the love of reading important for the saints? Because God has given us His message of Truth in a book: The Bible. Our brethren through the generations have written wonderful books on the Word that will only have power in our lives if they are read. And if no one is reading the Word, or the literature of the Truth, all that power to change is lost. After all, “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). Our faith is formed not by some miraculous indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but by the daily assimilation of the Word of God. That’s the real reason why we want our children to love reading—so that when they are older, they enjoy sitting down to meditate on the Word of God or reading a work of the Truth.

Why are stories important?

All human beings love stories. Our Lord knew this when he taught through parables; each parable teaches a lesson that lies behind the story. Story is a powerful medium, and when used correctly, can be a power for good in our children’s lives. Sarah Mackenzie, in her book, The Read Aloud Family, page 48, says that stories give our children “practice dealing with life-and-death situations, practice living with virtue, practice failing at virtue”. Through story, children are forced to contemplate values such as honesty, truthfulness, kindness, humility, compassion. These are the same values that they can learn through picture books, but when encountered in a chapter book the lesson can be deeper and fuller because the story is more complex. When you read Mary on Horseback by Rosemary Wells, you cannot but feel compassion for the people who lived in such poverty in the Appalachian Mountains. And when children listen to The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, they are forced to look at their own attitudes to those who are less well-off or different in some way. The lesson flows naturally out of the story itself. This is the power of story.

What kind of stories?

Ruth Sawyer said in The Way of a Storyteller (New York: Viking Press, 1962, page 157):

“Stories that make for wonder. Stories that make for laughter. Stories that stir one within with an understanding of the true nature of courage, of love, of beauty. Stories that make one tingle with high adventure, with daring, with grim determination, with the capacity of seeing danger through to the end. Stories that bring our minds to kneel in reverence, stories that show the tenderness of true mercy, the strength of loyalty, the unmawkish respect for what is good.”

These are the best kind of stories of all. The ones that evoke some sort of emotional reaction, that stay with you once you’ve closed the book. These are the books that we want to lead our children gently towards. The kind of book that you enjoy reading just as much as an adult as you enjoyed listening to or reading as a child.

We also want to choose books that are not morally ambiguous. The rights and wrongs of a book ought to be clear to the young mind. Sarah Clarkson in her book, Read for the Heart, page 150, wrote, “stories play powerfully in the development of an inner conception of morality, so for me to call a book good, it must clearly distinguish between goodness and evil”. In today’s world of confusion and calling evil good (Isaiah 5:20), it doesn’t help our children if a book is ambiguous as to what is right and wrong.

So … what about … series books?

In the early reading years, my children have gravitated to candy-floss type books, like Rainbow Magic or Geronimo Stilton. I am no fan of this kind of book. The plots are trite, the language is mediocre—hardly the great literary fare we hope they will go for. You can take a variety of approaches to these types of books—at the very least monitoring their consumption. Perhaps the one thing we don’t want is for our children to develop solely a taste for that kind of book. What I have noticed, however, is that by exposing children to other good literature, the taste for the ‘junk’ type book wanes over time and the enjoyment of nourishing literature increases. It’s a little like food: children will naturally gravitate towards the junk, but if nutritious food is presented in a tasty way, it will, over time, create in the child a taste for the good. It’s our job as parents to expose our children regularly to nutritious food; it’s equally our responsibility to introduce them to quality literature. “Children don’t stumble onto good books by themselves” (Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child’s Heart, page 17).

I would suggest that the reading of series books, overall, is a positive thing for our children. I began my journey into books through the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton, and my eldest two children have also cut their reading teeth on this series. Although the language is not very sophisticated, the great benefit of series books is that they hone the reading skills, they whet the appetite for more, and by the sheer volume of what is read, the emerging reader begins to fall in love with books. Jim Trelease in his book, The Read Aloud Handbook, says, “the important thing about series books is they make a pleasure connection with the child” (page 121). If we want our children to enjoy reading the Word and the literature of the Truth, we want them to see reading as pleasure, not work. At the end of this book list [download below] are some recommended series books for children to read—particularly helpful if you have a child that reads like a combine harvester.

“Comic books are a frequent childhood choice of people who grow up to become very fluent readers” (Jim Trelease, The Read Aloud Handbook, page 99). I happily consumed all the Asterix and Tintin books as a child, and, particularly for boys, these books are another way of making a pleasure connection with reading. However, many other comic books that my children have wanted to get out of the library I have found to be wanting. The language used is cheap and crass, and I’ve noticed that the illustrations often portray females in a suggestive way. Vetting every comic book is a must.

Reading aloud benefits

#1: Exposure to rich and sophisticated language

I’m not sure about you, but I find that the vocabulary I use with my children on a daily basis doesn’t tend to be overly sophisticated. “Shoes on! Get in the car NOW! Have you got your drink bottle? Has everyone been to the bathroom?” Chances are, the vocabulary children are exposed to from their peers is not much better. In fact, most conversation is made up of what is known as the ‘Basic Lexicon’: the 5000 most commonly used words. The ‘Common Lexicon’ includes the 5000 words from the ‘Basic Lexicon’ as well as an extra 5000 words. It is printed text (books) that contain the rare words. It is printed text that contains the richness and sophistication of language.

When we read aloud, we expose our children to rich, sophisticated language. Even when they cannot yet read sophisticated books on their own, their listening comprehension is much higher. They don’t have to sink all their energy into decoding the text; they sink it into listening and enjoying. That is the beauty of reading aloud a wonderful chapter book to our young listeners. What’s more, because we are reading the book out loud, the more descriptive passages (that fast readers tend to skip over to get to the action or dialogue) are also heard by the young listener. The young child then builds up a wealth of vocabulary by listening to excellent books read well.

Why is this important? Firstly, when a child has listened to excellent literature, when he or she comes to writing, they have the words and expressions right there in their brains to use! But more importantly, it trains the mind and ear to listen to and understand the Word of God. The Word of God, particularly in the King James Version, is rich, detailed, complex, poetic, and sophisticated. What’s more, think of Elpis Israel or Christendom Astray. How many people today find those works difficult to read and understand? Could part of the reason be that people are not training themselves from a young age on literature that is rich and complex?

#2: Building of knowledge

You could read a passage in a textbook on World War Two. It might tell you that France was occupied by the Germans and a little information about what the war was like in France. But that experience is a meagre one compared to reading Twenty and Ten, (a ‘living book’ by Claire Huchet Bishop), the story of some French children who take on the task of hiding ten Jewish children in their school. The paragraph in the textbook will be forgotten. But the book will be remembered. Moreover, it’s not just a ‘head’ knowledge that happens; it’s a ‘heart’ knowledge, too. Listening to Twenty and Ten doesn’t just impart the bare facts of history. It creates an awareness of the fear and danger and difficulty those children lived with. And it might even awaken our children to how fortunate they are in today’s world.

In this way, reading aloud excellent books builds our children’s knowledge of the world. They learn about geography and history in a real way, in a way that brings them right into that time period or culture. T. David Gordon in his book Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, writes on page 105, “Language brings the past close to us, and it facilitates our sense of human similarity to others. But images do just the opposite; an old, grainy, sepia-toned photograph of a Civil War soldier makes him appear very distant”. It is the power of story that gives us the ability to experience the past, and to make connections between an era gone and the present day.

#3: Creating a love for reading

Jim Trelease writes in his book, The Read Aloud Handbook, on page 9: “What phonics cannot do is motivate. Nobody has a favourite vowel or blend”. How true. The job of learning to decode as a young child can feel like … work. And if it feels like work, children will resist it. As humans, we move towards pleasure and away from pain. Which makes it unsurprising that, even though children may successfully learn how to read, the process has been so fraught with frustration and pain that they don’t choose to do it in their free time. It is not associated with pleasure.

Here comes the beauty of read-aloud time. No pain and frustration for the child; just a great story to listen to. It may take some time to hit on the right book, especially if reading aloud is a new experience, but the attraction of humans to story is sure to win out eventually! Whether they have started the process of decoding or not, we have the opportunity to choose quality literature to read aloud to help them fall in love with books. And if our child is a budding reader who is consuming large amounts of ‘candy-floss’ books, then reading aloud creates a taste for better fare. “Children easily gravitate to junk— it’s like they have built-in junk magnets. Our job is to lead them eventually to the better books by reading aloud to them” (The Read Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease, page 121).

Many of the books in the download resource list (below) are suitable for reading aloud to young children, and you’ll probably find (like I have in my family), that when their own reading skills are improved, they’ll go back to the books you’ve read and read them over again for themselves.

#4: Providing a role-model

It is true that in the parenting journey “more is caught than taught”. What kind of a role model do we present to our children? Are we constantly on our phones and computers? Or, are we seen by our children to read? Perhaps, if our schedule is busy, we may not have a lot of time to read for pleasure in front of our children. But if we read aloud to them, we are still modelling our own enjoyment of books while reaping all the other benefits listed above.

Some final thoughts

Reading aloud has always looked quite peaceful to me when my husband is reading. With me … not so much. I sit down to read aloud … and the baby needs a nappy change. Or, as happened to me once, I set everyone up with smoothies to drink during read-aloud … and one minute in, someone knocked their glass over, and I found myself cleaning up smoothie off the table, chair, and floor instead of reading. Or I’ve just begun reading, the phone rings, and by the time I get back … the kids have all disappeared. It doesn’t look perfect. But it’s worth it anyway. It’s worth it to cultivate a love of books, and particularly a love of good books. It might only be ten minutes. But it’s ten minutes well spent.

As Jim Trelease says in his book, The Read Aloud Handbook: “The least expensive thing we can give a child outside of a hug turns out to be the most valuable: words”.

Ten tips for reading aloud

1. Ten minutes every day is better than one hour once a fortnight. Children need some consistency to sustain interest in the story.
2. Choose a book with rich language, above their own reading level to read aloud. Leave them to practice their reading skills on lighter/series books.
3. Peg read-aloud to a time of day (e.g., with afternoon tea, before/over dinner, after the Bible readings) and do it consistently.
4. Don’t read too fast, and make sure there are enough pauses.
5. Try out different voices and accents for the characters. Make it fun!
6. Let your children use their hands while listening (Lego, colouring, hand crafts, painting, drawing). Studies show children often listen better if they can occupy themselves while listening.
7. Let kids have a snack while they listen — extra pleasure connections!
8. It works well to read the first book in a series to whet their appetites (e.g., Beezus and Ramona) and then leave them to read the rest of the series on their own.
9. Re-reading books children have already listened to is a good thing — they will get more out of it the second time round.
10. Use the read aloud as a springboard for natural discussion with your children on values such as courage, honesty, purity, kindness, compassion.

Download Chapter books for young children booklist

Here is my suggested list of books and book series along with my comments about them:

• Download “Children’s Books for Christadelphian Families:Chapter Books for Younger Children” (PDF, 1MB).

This is the second in a series of suggested lists of books for children and young people. You can read the post and download the suggested book list for picture books for three-to-eight-year-olds here..

Books quoted/Further reading:

The Holy Bible, KJV
Jim Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook, (New York: Penguin Books, 2013)
Sarah Mackenzie, The Read-Aloud Family, (Oregon: Zondervan, 2018)
Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child’s Heart, (Michigan: Zondervan, 2002)
Sarah Clarkson, Read for the Heart, (USA: Apologia Press, 2015)