My Mom has always used the phrase “readers are leaders” ever since I was a young child. I love to read, but I was not always the best or most advanced reader. As a matter of fact when learning to read while in the first grade at Korger Chestnut elementary I was placed in the slow reading group. The reading groups all had different bird names like “robins” and “blue birds”. Kids are smart and I realized we were separated by ability levels and the group I was placed in was definitely the slow group. In the end it didn’t matter. I learned to read well eventually. I became an avid reader in my youth. As a matter of fact, I remember my first chapter books I read in elementary school. It was the American Girl series books that I checked out at Stillson Elementary in 4th grade. I read the entire Samantha series and then the Kristen series. American Girl books are older than people realize. They were around when I was in Elementary school! Not all, but some were published at that time, as I read them! I wish they had the dolls at that time. I would have loved to own one. I wonder if it’s ok for me to get a Samantha doll now…maybe Santa will bring me one.

I decided this summer that I would start reading chapter books to Brielle at bedtime. I have read Pinkalicious about 100 times now, so I thought it would be nice to have a little change. I started to think about what books were read aloud to me as a child. I remembered that my second grade teacher at Korger Chestnut had read “Charlotte’s Web” out loud to our class and I loved it. That is the book I decided to read to Brielle. It took about a month, but at bedtime we would read this book and she and I became immersed in the words and images in conjured in our minds. She enjoyed it and I did too.

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Now that we finished Charlotte’s Web I decided we will start reading the American Girl books. She is at that age where she will start asking for the dolls, so I thought it would be great to actually read a series or two before she gets one of the dolls. The doll will hold more value to her if she knows the stories that go with the doll. I went on eBay and purchased three boxed sets. They are published differently than the boxed sets now, but I wanted the traditional boxed sets. eBay helped me find what I wanted! We are halfway through our first Samantha book already!

Goodreads.com has a good list of books that are voted for best reading aloud to kids.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/328.Best_Read_Aloud_Chapter_Books

I saw some great books on this list including “Little House on the Prairie”. I am building our library already. It is so nice to read “real” books to Brielle.

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