This is the first lot of chapter books I bought at the beginning of the summer and am reading to Avery (my soon-to-be first grader!). I’m trying to include both old and new books. Books written a long time ago offer an older, more rare lexicon--words, phrases and figurative language that have dropped out of current usage. Language is constantly in flux, so this is what happens! Anyway, children will encounter these uncommon words in the anthologies they read in school and in other good literature they consume as they get older. Also, these older words enrich their background knowledge/general knowledge, which is important for reading comprehension, answering inferential questions, grasping various concepts and understanding how the world works. Also, mystery books like Nate the Great are great for practicing higher level thinking skills—inferencing, predicting, deduction, reasoning, analysis.
We’re also going to try to make our way through a couple Dodsworth titles and some of The Cobble Street Cousins this summer and eventually the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary later in the fall. Oh, and My Father’s Dragon in there somewhere. Maybe Ivy + Bean? Any other recommendations out there from fellow readers for chapter books good for six-year-olds?