Some suggestions? Books for a 5 year old boy.

[politicat]

My nephew is about to turn five, and while I can buy books that are really great for girls until my credit card maxes out... Boys I'm not so good with. (I have five sisters and I didn't get my step-brothers until I was 21 and they were 13 and 15.) I need books with interest that we can read together, and interesting pictures on every page. (He's not quite five, and while he loves to be read to, he's not ready to read by himself yet.) We're doing Potter in audio right now.

So far, I have The Story About Ping, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The Iron Giant and Millions of Cats for him.

Please - nothing that is tied in with products, movies, TV shows, or any other form of channelled marketing. He does that just fine by himself. No overtly Christian or otherwise religious works, either -- his parents are agnostic and I'm agnostic-atheist. We'll do religion after he gives up Santa and the Tooth Fairy.

[Sabriel]

1. Try this site

It's world-renowned, and you can find books by level;

http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/bibBio.asp

Here are some to recommend:

Big Truck and Little Truck
Mr. Putter and Tabby (series)
Good Night, Good Knight (and sequel)
Henry and Mudge (series)
Max and Ruby books by Rosemary Wells
any of the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science: Stage 1 or Stage 2

[politicat]

4. Thanks!

This will help a lot.

[fight4my3sons]

2. My son's favorite book is Where the Wild Things Are

he is three. He also loves the I Spy books, but they aren't really reading books, more like games. He enjoys Max and Ruby, the Froggy series, Abiyoyo, and Dr. Suess.

[politicat]

3. DN has Wild Things, Seuss, Dora, Bob, Spongebob....

He got Wild Things as his first present from me (he was 4 days old and still in NICU). Our father got him the Seuss (one a month, and he has the whole collection now). I'm not a big fan of Seuss because there are nearly no girls in his books and the ones there are don't really get great coverage.

DN likes to read as his wind-down before he goes to bed, and I'm going to be baby sitting when we have next month's family reunion.

He's actually got a fairly extensive library; I've just been hoping for things that are different.

Thanks for the tips - I know I'll make sure to take a copy of Wild things when we get together next.

[fight4my3sons]

6. My aunt and first cousin gave me the Wild Thing book at my baby shower

for DS. She also gave me a Wild Thing stuffed animal that we took with us to the hospital and put in the little bassinet thing with him. All the other babies had these cute little teddy bears and there was our beautiful little son with a wild thing with him. Now that we have the twins who are twenty months younger than him, he says he is Max (his name is really Maximillian) and they are the wild things.

I agree with the other poster about the Eric Carle books - we love those too! What about Curious George?

[AwakeAtLast]

5. I think I Spy books are good for both genders.

I would also add any book by Eric Carle. I have students of both genders who love his books!

Hope this is helpful :hi:

[MassLiberal]

7. there are lots

Anything by Robert McCloskey (Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine), anything by Virginia Burton (Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Little House), Maurice Sendak of course, Tomie DePaola, Steven Kellogg (he's great for all kids--just bought my 4-year-old nephew his Paul Bunyan), Curious George (my son LOVED those books), The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats...I could go on and on! My three kids (two girls and a boy) read all the same books when they were young--gender, in terms of literary taste, doesn't really matter at that age, the way it seems to later on. Have fun! :-)

[melv]

8. "It's hard to be five" to Jamie Lee Curtis

Perfect book for turning 5!

[Ilsa]

9. My kids loved Walter the Farting Dog. There is also a sequel

about Walter and a yard sale, but I haven't bought it yet. Expensive books, though.

[Book Lover]

10. Please also check out Guys Read

http://guysread.com/

[GoddessOfGuinness]

11. Some of my boys' favorites when they were 5...

Six Dinner Sid by Inga Moore
No Jumping on the Bed! by Tedd Arnold
Dogzilla by Dav Pilkey
Kat Kong by Dav Pilkey (Pilkey is my 7 year old's favorite author)
A Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by Steven Kellogg
The Magic Schoolbus books
Chipmunk Song by Joanne Ryder (Mom's favorite bedtime story)

I've always read to my boys using different voices for the characters. My youngest reads that way now, applying sound effects as well.

[lostnfound]

12. Mine has recently enjoyed...

James and the Giant Peach (though a bit of a stretch, he really liked it, and we read it every night for a week).

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-up (this pop-up is SOOOO amazing and beautiful, a real treasure)

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (there's a version that's good for this age group)

Anansi the Spider (about Anansi's 6 sons, each one had a different role in saving their father)