Beginners Books

My 4 and 5 year olds love Junie B. Jones. This is the first chapter book on cd we have purchased and they love it! They listen to it while they are going to bed at night. They even tell me which chapter they were on when they fell asleep:) Great buy!

Junie B., First Grader: Dumb Bunny (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))

I love all of Barbara Parks books about Junie B. Jones. I think they should make a movie of this book. I think this is the funniest of all the Junie B.books. If you have a little girl who loves to read or be read to, I cannot recommend all of the Junie B. books enough.

Would make a great addition to any Easter basket! This book is a little better than cheater pants!

My daughter has the whole collection she love keeping up with Junie B. I have not read a book in it's entire but from what I've read she is a very curious, funny little girl. I recommend this book and all the others also. My daughter was hooked after the 1st Barbara Parks books and althought she is older now she still cracks up laughing when reading. Totaling entertaining!

After more than 25 books, Barbara Park's series about a very loquacious first grader with a vocabulary far beyond her age (and the writing ability to go with it) is still going strong. So I suspended my disbelief and read JUNIE B., FIRST GRADER: DUMB BUNNY to my six-year-old.

In this adventure, the rich girl in class, Lucille, invites everyone over to her mansion to participate in an over-the-top Easter Egg Hunt that will result in a play date in Lucille's heated indoor swimming pool. Lucille wants her boyfriend Sheldon to win, but Junie B. and her arch-nemesis May (the original "dumb bunny" in the title until Junie B. gets something of a comeuppance later on) are ready to pounce, pound and scrabble their opponents in order to get a dip in that grand pool.

There is a lot of falling down and Batman-type expletives (WHOOSH! SMASH!), and the kids are none too nice to each other until Junie B., in a sudden acknowledgment of good judgment, makes a quick and well-appreciated sacrifice to save the day. We laughed at some of the pratfalls, and Lucille's annoyed Nanna character was amusing as well. Junie B. shares the stage with a lot of different people, but she is clearly the star of the show, the story told from her point of view.

Whether humiliated in a pink bunny suit or gloating over her lack of selfishness, Junie B. thinks in capital letters with lots of exclamation points and writes in her journal about what she has learned. The journal entries are cute and engaging, and spell out the moral of the story without being too pointed, which we appreciated.

If this is your first Junie B. foray, it might be helpful to go back and read some of the earlier books first to relax into her strange environment. Otherwise, DUMB BUNNY certainly will offer fans of the series more of what they have come to expect from this little girl and her friends.

--- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

My daughter love this series. It's a little hard for me to read due to the poor grammar and name calling. Let's face it though most first graders have poor grammar. There are worse things that she could be reading. We have all of these books and they are well loved.

My mother first read this book to me when I was a child and I read it to my little brother later. I bought a copy for myself as an adult and have had great fun sharing with all of the children in my life. The story is a cautionary tale about the law of unintended consequences and the need to work out your differences. The best thing about the book is the hilarious illustrations. My children, my husband and I would sit together, making the animal noises and enjoying every part of each picture. (My personal fav is the elephant grabbing the startled king while he talks to his wise men.) A great book for your family!

My kids love this book. The pictures are great and the plot is simple.

For me the key lessons from the story are:-

1. That wise men (ie experts) are not always that wise.
2. Government intervention to solve a problem is not always that successful and often does a lot of damage.
3. It is sometimes far better for a government to simply find a way to accommodate a problem rather than try and fix it.

41 years later:

The cheese is government cheese.

The mice objected to the king's idea of good manners as species-centric, and rebelled.

The king blamed the peasants, and forbade them to keep cats or chase mice from their homes.

This made things worse. Peasants that could afford to do so moved as far away from mice as possible.

I can't wait for the next chapter.

This was one of my favorite books since I was a kid. The pictures were funny and the story has two good lessons in it. People should try to figure out your own problems and don't judge a book by its cover. In this case the mice. The king learned to share his home and his cheese and that's the moral of this story. I would recommended this book to my friends if they where doing this project. It is a great learning experience for kids.

One of the best books I have ever read. The message is deep wisdom that our government leaders and makers of US foreign policy would do well to internalize.

Your kids will like it too.

Nate The Great lives up to his moniker as the neighborhood detective who works alone in this hilarious and page-turning novel for young readers.

The simplicity of the writing will add to the enjoyment for kids and parents, as well, who will be sure to be reminded of hard-boiled detectives in those old black-and-white movies we've all seen on TV.

You'll love sharing this book (and a big stack of pancakes) with your kids!

Nate is one of the best kid detectives I have ever met. The books are instant classics and I was inspired and interested in reading the whole series since third grade. I will buy the whole collection no matter what, just to have this smart gumshoe in my book case for my own pleasure to read again and again.

This book is a great detective book. Nate helps his friend find a lost picture.

I never did read any Nate the Great growing up...and what a shame. It's amazing that Sharmat can do so very much in terms of story and humor with so few words. It's great for beginner readers and uproariously funny as a read aloud story (especially if you can do the P.I. voice-over effect). This initial installment (I believe there are over 20 in this series) finds Nate the Great on hire for his friend Annie who has lost a favorite picture of her dog Fang. Nate is confidant that he can find the missing painting and sets out to systematically follow all the leads he's been given. He questions suspects and eventually tracks down the culprit, while enjoying meal after meal and snack after snack of, what else, but pancakes (his favorite food, of course).

This book is funny, charming and most of all...my kids just LOVED it! I have a 6 year old and an 8 year old, sometimes story time is tough and we're having more and more trouble finding books that appeal to both a 6 year old by and an 8 year old girl! We'll be reading more Nate the Great, because they both found it hilarious and best of all, Girl easily read it to Boy several times after having it read to them as a bedtime story! Absolutely Hilarious, I give it an A+

With charming illustrations and a clever case-cracking hero, early readers will love to read this book as well as the others in the Nate the Great series. Nate has a kid's dream "job" of being the neighborhood detective, and he is surrounded by quirky companions whose cases he solves. These witty stories with a vintage originality will have kids reaching for the next one . . . and the next. . .

I don't write reviews very often, but I felt I needed to with this book. My son is beginning first grade this year, and is reading short words, but he doesn't like to sit very long. It is a struggle to get him through more than one book a day. However, with this set I can usually get him to read through at least two stories. And today, when he discovered the stickers he could earn for reading, he read every book in the set. I was amazed! Fun stories with fun pictures. (I also like Bob books - but he likes these better:)

My daughter had been struggling to read more fluently so I got the Bob Book Series for her & it was such a struggle to get her to want to read them. A teacher working in a bookstore recommended this series & it was amazing how excited she was to read to me every night. We quickly went thru the Prereader & Level 1 & 2 & now I am waiting for the level 3 books to arrive. They are funny & the illustrations are nice & colorful. Loves putting the stickers on when she has finished the story. They made a big difference in her confidence & she can't wait to read them. Highly recommeded as a confidence builder!!

This was a great way for my five year old in helping him read. He was so excited about learning how to read on his own and getting stickers for completing each book. I love these books and am planning to but levels 2 & 3.

I highly recommend these books by Nora Gaydos for parents who are teaching their child to read at home. My son has known the sounds of all the letters and has been able to sound out three and four letter words with short vowel sounds since he was three. I thought he would be an early reader, but at age 5 now he has not liked any books we have tried as beginning readers until now. He became so bored with the Bob Books, McGuffey's primer, Step into Reading books, etc... that he started pretending he didn't know the sounds anymore. He still loved me to read to him, though, but he would not try to read by himself.

Then I ordered these books a few days ago and amazingly, he was so intrigued by the illustrations, he sat down and read three of them straight through to me. He has never been a fan of stickers, but for some reason, the incentive to place a sticker inside each book when you finish reading it really has appealed to him. We got the Animal Antics and the Playful Pals sets two days ago and he has already read five of the books three times each by himself! I am so amazed and excited that he is happy about reading again.

These books are very well done. They follow a good phonics program, with funny stories that actually make sense. The illustrations are superb and really get the child interested in what is happening in the story. I wish I could give these more than five stars! I also recommend the other Level 1 books called Animal Antics. The books are a little bigger but the stories are different and continue in the same vein as these Playful Pals. Both sets contain 10 readers each. You could do the first five of each set first, which are easier, and then the second five of each set. Happy Reading!

my son now six has known his letter sounds since he was four and just would not be willing to sit down and read even the simpliest of books to me, and I have a lot of emergent readers and leveled readers. This was the set That did it for us. He begs to read these books, he thinks they are so funny and they are wrote in a way that works for him. These books really concentrate on phonics and not very much on sight words, so be prepared to back up this set with books that use more sight words, like "go dog Go" and "Are you my mother" from DR. Suess.
If your child is resisting reading this set just might do it for you. 10 pages per book with a couple words to start and building onto the sentence with each page, encourages child to sound out a new word or two each page, but uses lots of familiar words from the previous page to help the child stay motivated and unlike other phonics readers these stories make sense and are fun to read.

This set focuses on consenant blends and is the second in the set of level one books about animals, the other level one set uses mostly 3 letter words, while this one has a larger variety of four letter words, but still using short vowel sounds. Words like: splat and flat.

The level 2 set works on long vowel sounds
and the level 3 set continues to add new letter combinations.

My four year old son is in love with this chapter series! A friend suggested it to us since he seemed ready for a more advanced reading material at bedtime. My husband reads him a chapter every night...sometimes more because they don't want to stop. It's become a great tradition for them, and something they both look forward to. We love that there are so many in the collection! Start with number 1 and just continue. :)

We loved Magic Tree House#12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime by Mary Pope Osborne. Jack and Annie had a challenging riddle to solve in the Arctic. They needed to solve the riddle to become master librarians. There was a lot of action in the story. Jack and Annie had to work together to get back home safely. We learned many interesting facts about the Inuit people, polar bears, and the Arctic. Mary Pope Osborne used descriptive language that helped us visualize. We loved the story and think you will too!

MY 2nd GRADER read it to the FAMILY! we all LOVED it! IN SCHOOLS WHERE THERE R SO MANY STUPID AWEFUL BOOKS FORCED ON STUDENTS LIKE THE MINDLESS --- ( junie b jones series OR THAT horrible harry JUNK!!!) THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE SERIES REALLY COMES THRU WITH BOOKS TO HELP A YOUNG MIND GROW WITH USEFUL CARING & KNOWLEDGE!!! ANOTHER POLARBEAR BOOK MUST HAVE IS: (POLARBEARS AND THE ARCTIC! NON FICTION MAGIC TREE HOUSE ALSO)

You should read this book because it has good facts. Did you know that a 270 lbs female cub polar bear can go on thin ice without falling through? Is that cool or what? My favorite part is when Jack and Annie meet the cubs and play. It takes place in the Arctic. What do you think will happen to the two kids? Will they become frozen dinners to the bears or will they get save? Read the book to find out!

By Mr. Sondericker's 2nd Grade Class (Marilla Primary, Marilla, NY)

We loved Magic Tree House#12: Polar Bears Past Bedtime by Mary Pope Osborne. Jack and Annie had a challenging riddle to solve in the Arctic. They needed to solve the riddle to become master librarians. There was a lot of action in the story. Jack and Annie had to work together to get back home safely. We learned many interesting facts about the Inuit people, polar bears, and the Arctic. Mary Pope Osborne used descriptive language that helped us visualize. We loved the story and think you will too!

the chalk box kid

The Calk box kid









Crcc the walls where about to fall down Gorge ran to the other side



The Calk Box Kid by Clyde Bulla was about a kid named Gorge likes to plant and draw flowers .One

day Gorge moved to a knew town and a knew school but Gorge did not make any friends .Gorge did

not talk to anyone. Gorge got bulled by this kid named Vince because he said'' you think you school is

better then ours just because it bigger



My favorite part was when Gorge stood up to this boy named Vince. Vince was the meanest person in the whole entire school.



I think the author's purpose was to teach us to make friends, be nice to others, and to have fun at school.



I think a lot of kids should read this book because I give this book five stars. You learn some things like how to be a good friend and how to treat others like you want to be treated.
By Eugene



Crcc the walls where about to fall down Gorge ran to the other side



The Calk Box Kid by Clyde Bulla was about a kid named Gorge likes to plant and draw flowers .One

day Gorge moved to a knew town and a knew school but Gorge did not make any friends .Gorge did

not talk to anyone. Gorge got bulled by this kid named Vince because he said'' you think you school is

better then ours just because it bigger



My favorite part was when Gorge stood up to this boy named Vince. Vince was the meanest person in the whole entire school.



I think the author's purpose was to teach us to make friends, be nice to others, and to have fun at school.



I think a lot of kids should read this book because I give this book five stars. You learn some things like how to be a good friend and how to treat others like you want to be treated.
The Calk box kid









Crcc the walls where about to fall down Gorge ran to the other side



The Calk Box Kid by Clyde Bulla was about a kid named Gorge likes to plant and draw flowers .One

day Gorge moved to a knew town and a knew school but Gorge did not make any friends .Gorge did

not talk to anyone. Gorge got bulled by this kid named Vince because he said'' you think you school is

better then ours just because it bigger



My favorite part was when Gorge stood up to this boy named Vince. Vince was the meanest person in the whole entire school.



I think the author's purpose was to teach us to make friends, be nice to others, and to have fun at school.



I think a lot of kids should read this book because I give this book five stars. You learn some things like how to be a good friend and how to treat others like you want to be treated.
By Eugene

When you read this book you will be amazed! This book is amazing
to me and probably to you to.I mean I love this book it's amazing I hope you will like this book very,very much if you want to find out more information you'll have to read it!!!!!

The Chalk box kid teaches you a lesson about how to deal with life when
you move. It shows you that you can make a place your own. It was a wonderful book.Gregory creats a chalk garden. As 3rd graders we give it 5
stars!

This is my favorite book ever because it was about chalk and I like to write with chalk.

I like this book a lot because I like to write with chalk.I would also like to have a garden.

A wonderful book. I loved it as a child, and going back to read it as an adult I realize that there are a lot of things that I missed. I remember my teacher reading it aloud in class--wonderful!

The movie, although very nice, has only a superficial resemblance to the book. For one thing, it moves the time a generation or so back. For another, in the book both parents are alive, rather than Caracticus Pott's being a widower; consequently, there is no romance.

I could very well wish that a new movie be made, NOT a musical and following the original plot.

Just like when I was a kid at my moms knee listening to her read this to me I wsa again transported to another time. This audio is great. Kids and adults alike will fall inlove with this audio book. Some what diffrent than the movie staring Dick Van Dyke. which is always a welcome suprise.

I remember the 1968 movie based on this novel fondly, but had never picked up the novel itself until just the other day. I was surprised at how different the book is. Although Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang herself is very similar in both, the plot of the story is much different. I enjoyed this simple little story, with Fleming's humorous asides, very much. Those asides reminded me of the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books I have read and I would be interested in learning if Lemony Snicket drew from Fleming's story style for his own series. This is a fun, quick story that most kids will enjoy. I do, however, fear that the admittedly crude illustrations in my original edition would not be as popular with modern children.

The story of Caractacus Pott, his family, and that wonderful magical car is one of the best children's stories you will ever read. Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, tells a fantastic story about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the magical flying car that can even turn into a boat! It's a delightful story, filled with crooks and gangsters, and you won't be sorry you bought this fantastic little book. Should be added to every child's bookshelf. Just delightful! The book is so much better than the movie, eliminating that silly Vulgaria story. If you want to read the story Ian Fleming intended, you'll have to buy the book. You won't be sorry.

It is a charming and delightful story that you will love to read to your children. I read this book to my 6 year old. She loved it!! We both wish we could find more books about this wonderful family and car.

We recieved a copy of this book as a present when our baby was born. Honestly, the art is not my thing at all. Its that weird collage style. So, if it was up to me, I would give this book 3 stars but my daughter absolutely loves it. She's 8 months old and always gets so excited when we read it that its on heavy rotation. I like how it teaches about animal sounds but with a fun rythem. Eventualy, you just don't notice the art that much. In the end, I am forced to give it 5 stars.

This book has very simple text, but my 16 mo old twins love the rhythm. They both dance around as I read it aloud and have me read it over and over again. Like other reviewers, my son laughs and dances over to look at the picture when we get to the "Bee Buzz Honey" page. We used to get this book from the library but decided we needed a copy in our personal home library.

Cow Moo Me contains images of animals paired with text using a rhyming pattern to display the name of each animal and the sound the animal makes. For example, an image of a bumblebee flying around flowers is paired with the text, "bee buzz honey, bee buzz zoom, bee buzz busy, bee buzz bloom." This book would be appropriate for infants ages newborn to 24 months. The rhythmic patterns, bright colors, and familiar animals make this book ideal for this age group. In addition, the rounded edges are very appropriate for young infants who like to explore books themselves. I would recommend using this book in the library as part of a lapsit. The artwork is made of bright, colorful collages. The images are cute and silly, fitting well with the simple text.

My 2 year old LOVES this book. He can practically recite it back to me! He laughes when we get to the Bee Buzz Honey part! Although most of the reviews are for babies much younger, my son continues to enjoy this book, in fact, even more now!

My daughter is 7 months old and for the last month this book has been among her favorite playthings. She laughs and waves her arms when I read it to her and her eyes light up just looking at the pictures. I turn the page to "Bee Buzz Honey" and her eyes find the bee and she smiles. Not great literature, no. But a book a baby could love.

I think deconstruction is important but have difficulty understanding it. This book is the only lucid explanation I've seen of it's basic principles.

If you are beginning to read derrida, this book will be very helpful. Now if they only made one for Judith Butler! (Skip the Foucault, his theories are not that complex.)

Derrida is my favorite philosopher. I don't think that his 'Deconstruction' is holistic necessarily but the gist of it explains the inherent problems of doing philosophy better then anything else I've read.

Unlike the greats of Science who simplify complex ideas (i.e..Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman), the guru's of philosophy take fairly straight-forward ideas and shroud them with such mysterious sounding proprietary language that their work becomes nearly impossible to decipher. Derrida is no exception. This is a shame because his underlying message is brilliant...and really not not all that abstract.

So until philosophers realize that less words does not directly translate to less intelligence, we should be very glad to have commentators like Jim Powell around.

"Derrida For Beginners" concentrates on developing the key concept of "differance" and defining the necessary Derridian terminology used to communicate its meaning. The book clearly defines, "binary opposites", "texts", "logocentricism" etc.. and has plenty of diagram's to help you get the idea. While I can't say the artwork did much for me, the cartoon setting does force the message to be carried accross succinctly...no babling. The first book I read after failing miserably to tackle "Of Grammatology" was "Derrida" by Christopher Norris. While his was an excellent introduction..I will say that after I read "Derrida for Beginners" I went back and read most of Norris' book again and got a lot more out of it. Try this: read "Derrida for Beginners" as many times as needed until you have all the words in bold print at your fingertips..then, read Norris' book "Derrida". With this few hours of investment, do some online searches and read some of the commentaries and criticism of Derrida. You will be surprised at how badly he is misunderstood by so many who have studied him a lot more then you, and should feel good about your knowledge in comparisom. Of course you then need to get humble again so start reading "Of Grammatology". :)

This book is concerned with making accessible the often inaccessible Derrida. Derrida's philosophy will help you develop a healthy sensibility and cynicism for 'knowledge' and 'representation.'
Do not be fooled by the 'for beginners' title; it is not simply an introduction, it is a hands-on intepretation of several his 'major' works. The book has any value for anyone interested in learning about the world in which we live.

This book is concerned with making accessible the often inaccessible Derrida. Derrida's philosophy will help you develop a healthy sensibility and cynicism for 'knowledge' and 'representation.'
Do not be fooled by the 'for beginners' title; it is not simply an introduction, it is a hands-on intepretation of several his 'major' works. The book has any value for anyone interested in learning about the world in which we live.

My four year old son is in love with this chapter series! A friend suggested it to us since he seemed ready for a more advanced reading material at bedtime. My husband reads him a chapter every night...sometimes more because they don't want to stop. It's become a great tradition for them, and something they both look forward to. We love that there are so many in the collection! Start with number 1 and just continue. :)

My daughter loves these books and this one is the only one she was missing. Happy to have found it through Amazon!

My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

Jack and Annie are helping Teddy get all four presents. They're going to Australia to find the last present. They go on all kinds of adventures like helping a little kangaroo get back to its mother. Will Jack and Annie help the little kangaroo find its mother? If you want to know, you'll have to read Dingoes At Dinnertime. I like this book. It's good because I like the Dingoes because they remind me of my dog Paco.

Jack and Annie are trying to get the last present to free Teddy from the spell .Can they get the last present? My favorite part was
When Teddy helped Jack and Annie to get out of the wild fire.
I really liked this book you should too!