Your 6 year olds favorite books

January 19, 2018 9:30 AM

My kindergartner has decided most of the books we own are now 'boring'. He still likes books with pictures on every other page. (It doesn't have to be at his reading level, we have plenty of simple books to practice with. This is for bed time.) Minecraft is currently a big hit (building etc) and he enjoys telling elaborate stories. Taking him to the library is also on the list, but sometimes favorites don't have cool covers.
posted by typecloud to Media & Arts (19 answers total)

Best answer: I am not sure I'm reading your question right, but I think you're saying he loves the Minecraft games, not the books? Because there's a robust collection of Minecraft easy reader chapter books with pictures on every other page that are a big hit with that set if he hasn't read them. Similarly, a lot of nonfiction minecraft with pictures of cool things that have been built and how to build them in game. They're all officially licensed and easy to find by search term minecraft. I also like the Lego books that tend to be in the same area which do the similar "here's a cool thing made with Legos and here's, if not instructions, insights into building techniques."

Are you/he looking more towards fiction or nonfiction?
posted by theweasel at 9:41 AM on January 19, 2018

Best answer: You're talking about readalouds, right? I highly recommend Ursula Vernon's Dragonbreath and Hamster Princess series. They are fast-paced and heavily illustrated, and the illustrations are in comic format (my son would read the comics parts and I'd read the text). Her Castle Hangnail is great, too.
posted by gideonfrog at 9:47 AM on January 19, 2018

Best answer: My son (now 9) really enjoys the "Diary of a Minecraft Zombie" series.
That might be right up your alley.
posted by jozxyqk at 9:49 AM on January 19, 2018

Best answer: Check out kids books by Arthur Geisert, especially "Lights Out," "Hogwash," "Pigaroon," and "The Giant Ball of String." Inventive, detailed, and humorous--my guys liked them around 5-7 years old.

For longer books with complicated and not-boring story lines, you can't go wrong with "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket.
posted by cocoagirl at 9:50 AM on January 19, 2018

Best answer: Another suggestion: Captain Underpants, which not only has a lot of pictures but even some "Flip-O-Rama" animated pages.

For books that he can read himself or "interact" with the story, anything by Mo Willems. Both the Pigeon and the Elephant and Piggie series are excellent.
posted by jozxyqk at 9:52 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Re: Minecraft books I wasn't sure if they were appropriate for young elementary (he's doing the building, the monsters still scare him unless it's a story of say a creeper becoming Steve's friend) but I can pre-read and try a few.

This is for reading aloud to him primarily.
posted by typecloud at 9:56 AM on January 19, 2018

Response by poster: Ps. Elephant and Piggy is liked by his younger brother so it has been deemed 'boring' hence the upgrades to the home library.
posted by typecloud at 10:00 AM on January 19, 2018

My kids both enjoyed Mark Chevert's Gameknight999 Minecraft books. My son, at 5 or 6, enjoyed the Carl Hiaasen books that his big sister chose (everybody got to choose a book, and we took turns). I read the Hobbit to them when the big sister was about 5, and she really enjoyed it. Those are all long-term, couple-pages-a-night investments, though.

Mo Willems pigeon books are good, though I personally can't stand them.

The Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik (illustrated beautifully by Maurice Sendak) are something that I remember really fondly from when I was 6, that my kids also both really enjoyed.
posted by curiousgene at 10:01 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My 6-year-old son has similar interests an has recently taken up reading simple graphic novels, specifically the Plants vs. Zombies ones. He also likes the Captain Underpants and Dogman series--the latter is more like a traditional graphic novel with comics on every page while the former is a beginner chapter book with drawings mixed in. We do some reading out loud with these, but my son is able to read nearly all of the text himself, and will do so happily. These are the first books that he's wanted to sit down and read independently, cover to cover.

For reading aloud, lately he also enjoys the poetry books by Shel Silverstein and the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel.
posted by Jemstar at 10:11 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My kindergartner's most recent favorite read-alouds are the Franny K. Stein series (she's an elementary school mad scientist) and Galaxy Zack.

We have also read through most of the Dav Pilkey books (Captain Underpants, Dogman, and Ricky Ricotta's Might Robot). Ricky Ricotta isn't graphic novel form but still has quite a number of pictures.
posted by statsgirl at 10:15 AM on January 19, 2018

Best answer: Sounds like he's right on the cusp of Captain Underpants, Magic Treehouse, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, and Geronimo Stilton, which are all very short chapter books in heavy rotation in our house and our kid's friends' houses. They have fewer pictures but enough to keep going. If these are for him to read himself, there appear to be several billion Henry and Mudge books that he might be nearly ready to read.

Does he have any interest in non-fiction books, or poetry? Non-fiction books about animals, space, art, or history just seem to have a higher density of pictures even as the complexity of the descriptions goes up. Shel Silverstein's about right at that age in terms of not being boring or talking down to the reader.
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:17 AM on January 19, 2018

David Wiesner's books! I'm calling them out specifically because their dearth of words maybe implies toddler books to some people but they're totally not. The kid gets to tell the story at the same time they're reading it. My guys loved them and the details are wonderful.

I have read these four of his but I imagine the rest are good too:

Mr. Wuffles!
Tuesday
The Three Pigs
Art & Max
posted by turkeybrain at 10:24 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I had an Ask a bit ago, for slightly different reasons, but the books recommended will probably fit your needs as well.

Recommendations from that thread that we particularly enjoyed include the Ricky Ricotta and his Mighty Robot series and the Kung Pow Chicken series. Geronimo Stilton has a lot of visual interest too, and makes a good read-aloud. The Rabbit and Robot books gave us some laughs as well.

Finally, maybe not yet, but when you're ready for a bit of a stretch, the new illustrated Harry Potter books are amaaaaaazing.
posted by telepanda at 11:30 AM on January 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This is also around the age at which we started with DK character encyclopedias. We had the Star Wars one. At bedtime I'd tell him to choose, say, 4 characters, and I'd read those pages to him. Lots of visual appeal, plus it helped him learn to use a table of contents and an index, sequence large numbers, and alphabetize.
posted by telepanda at 11:40 AM on January 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: The “How to Train Your Dragon” series is a lot of fun. That’s what encouraged my kid to start reading chapter books at about that age (and there are still some pictures).
posted by Empidonax at 7:49 PM on January 19, 2018

Best answer: Nthing the Dav Pilkey suggestions -- the Captain Underpants and Dog Man series are both in heavy (HEAVY) rotation around here with my kindergartener. Magic Treehouse and the Henry and Mudge series have been a big hit too, and so have Beverly Cleary books.

Ramona doesn't have pictures but became a big favorite after Ramona the Pest was a readaloud book at school, but the Mouse and the Motorcycle (which has occasional simple illustrations) and Henry Huggins books were thoroughly enjoyed, too.
posted by ThatSomething at 8:57 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: This is a little different than everyone else's suggestions, but my Minecraft and Castle Crashers obsessed son really likes the illustrated Harry Potter books for bedtime reading. I believe they're up to Prisoner of Azkaban now.
posted by checkitnice at 12:42 PM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all - excellent suggestions. I will try to add a comment in a few months on what was the most successful for us.
posted by typecloud at 9:26 AM on January 22, 2018

Response by poster: These are books we've been able to find at the library that are part of a series that he's enjoyed.

- CatStronauts by Drew Barrington
- Captain Awesome by Stan Kirby
- Monkey with a Toolbelt and ... by Chris Monroe

Also anything related to Superheroes (Spiderman, Batman, etc) has also been acceptable.

I also have several of the ones above on our library hold list.
posted by typecloud at 12:24 PM on March 5, 2018 [1 favorite]