Chapter Books for 3 year olds

hmp1 · July 2014

I was just reading this list and bought one to try out. Have any of you with kids around James' age started reading chapter books to them? Any recommendations on ones that held their attention and the story stayed with them enough to break it into several nights of reading? I am really getting tired of reading the picture story books every night x2 so I'm hoping James will be into this change.

https://www.whatdowedoallday.com/2012/08/50-chapter-books-for-preschoolers-and-3-year-olds.html

amandad715 · July 2014

Thanks for the link @hmp1‌ ! I've been wanting to do this with Jack. Recently, he's been really into his High 5 magazines(Preschool Highlights, which I am sure you know already

. The short stories, poems, silly pictures are a nice change of pace to picture books. Especially since I'm home this summer with them and they each get a nap time book too. I think he'd totally like a continuing story.

I didn't look at the entire list but the Treehouse series might be good too. I can't remember when or why but we read some of the first one with Jack. Dinosaurs Before Dark is the title and I clearly recall him enjoying it because the main boy character is Jack. Hmmmm....now that's going to bother me all day-why I had a copy here or where we read it? Pregnancy brain.

amandad715 · July 2014

<<<<<========Nerd Reader alert

Ok, so I just added My Father's Dragon to my Amazon cart and saw at the bottom of the page that Little Blue Truck is coming out with a new book-Little Blue Truck's Christmas!!!! I am WAY too excited over this. We love both the Blue truck stories and more than once I've looked at the publication date and thought, "when is this author going to write another book?"

Available for pre-order! You're welcome.

tyrannasaurusjess · July 2014

I haven't looked at the list, but the first chapter books that popped into my head were the Amelia badelia books. Are those even a thing anymore? They might be for an older crowd, I just thought of them and got nostalgic!

..heads off to buy the set off off amazon..

Hyaline · July 2014

I loved Uncle Wiggily as a kid! I even had the board game.

From the list--I remember Mr Popper's Penguins and the old Winnie the Pooh (I may have been a little older, but still parents read-aloud books). Pooh is nice because most of the "chapters" are stories themselves--they link to each other but you don't have to remember complicated plots or anything, lol.

We also had several "treasuries" of stories--folk tales, the Flower Fairies poems, children's Bible story anthology, stuff like that--that my parents would read a section or several pages of. I think they worked well as a transition into longer books because the stories themselves were still short and there were illustrations. From the list--we had the James Herriot treasury.

kelbel527 · July 2014

Thanks for posting this! I think we need to do this too. I am also getting sick of reading the same books over and over.

Brody's 4K class loves the Flat Stanley books. Their teacher reads a chapter or two before rest time everyday. Brody comes home talking about them all the time. And I think there are a few of them, so you can keep going for awhile.

hmp1 · July 2014

jessk86 said:

I haven't looked at the list, but the first chapter books that popped into my head were the Amelia badelia books. Are those even a thing anymore? They might be for an older crowd, I just thought of them and got nostalgic! ..heads off to buy the set off off amazon..

I was big into the Ramona books and Beverly Cleary has a boy character, Henry Huggins, series. I think I will wait a little on those since the character is 8 or 9 years old.

hmp1 · July 2014

amandad715 said:

<<<<<========Nerd Reader alert

Ok, so I just added My Father's Dragon to my Amazon cart and saw at the bottom of the page that Little Blue Truck is coming out with a new book-Little Blue Truck's Christmas!!!! I am WAY too excited over this. We love both the Blue truck stories and more than once I've looked at the publication date and thought, "when is this author going to write another book?"
Available for pre-order! You're welcome.

I was trying to decide between that one and Superduper Teddy. I ended up getting Superduper Teddy because I think he will relate to the character - 4 year old boy dressing like a super hero and taking care of a cat.

And adding Little Blue Truck's Christmas to Leo's Christmas list.

PenelopePond · July 2014

I've been wanting to do this for E. Thanks for the list!

Holly_1007 · July 2014

Oh man HMP you make me want to buy all the things all the time!

hmp1 · July 2014

Holly_1007 said:

Oh man HMP you make me want to buy all the things all the time!

At least a lot of these you can get for free at the library!

Holly_1007 · July 2014

hmp1 said:

Holly_1007 said:

Oh man HMP you make me want to buy all the things all the time!

At least a lot of these you can get for free at the library!

true story! You always give me inspiration for birthdays and Christmas, it's not a bad thing!

hmp1 · July 2014

origamipoppy said:

Not chapter books but another alternative to the same picture books over and over are the shel Silverstein poetry books. I remember as a kid my dad reading me three or four a night. They're goofy and longish and a different twist on the bedtime story.

I have these from my childhood and they get read often. I'm wanting to work on retention skills by having a story last a few nights.

linzeek44 · July 2014

Mouse and the Motorcycle is one that my four year old student read at home. A pretty good one to read, I think.

There's also Russell Rides Again and Russell Sprouts that might be appropriate.

pharmer78 · July 2014

Earlier this year, I read Charlotte's Web to Lila...one or two chapters/day before bed. She seemed to enjoy it. I, personally, find the book a little boring (but beautiful imagery I suppose).

pharmer78 · July 2014

@Hyaline, I had the Uncle Wiggily board game too...that was my FAVORITE game when I was a kid!

@jessk86, Recently we read Amelia Bedelia and the Baby, Lila and I thought it was totally hilarious. I found myself saying, "this is plum cute!" all day.

damabo80 · July 2014

DD is a July '11 3yo, so she's on the younger side, but right now, she would not be into chapter books at all. If a page has more than 5 sentences on a page, she tunes out.

bosha711 · July 2014

MH just got DS a graphic novel version of the Wizard of Oz. It's not chapters, but it's pretty long & they've been reading several pages each night.

I have the Wind in the Willows collection from when I was a kid that he also enjoys.

He also has a few Thomas books that are on the longer side that we split up over multiple nights. Although, his interest is leaning toward superheroes more recently!

hmp1 · July 2014

damabo80 said:

DD is a July '11 3yo, so she's on the younger side, but right now, she would not be into chapter books at all. If a page has more than 5 sentences on a page, she tunes out.

I have seen a huge difference in 3 and 3.5. 3-3.5 was really difficult in our house and now he is like a different child. I started one this weekend and he is doing really well with it. I was able to do both nap and night so that helped with retention. We will see how only doing it at bedtime works out this week.

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