I have two sons, 5 & (almost) 3. We read stories every night before bed. I'm thinking it would be fun to start reading an exciting & age appropriate chapter book to them at night. I'm not looking for an easy-reader. I want something that will be interesting for them--that they'll look forward to hearing each night. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking, maybe Peter Pan or something like that...
I've been reading The Chronicles of Narnia to my daughter....she's almost 5. We've finished "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian". We're about to start the next one. I bought the complete "chronicles" in one book at Mardel's for $6.99---great price.
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary is a fun chapter book. We read it to my daughter when she was 4 or 5 and she loved it.
My son loves the Magic Tree House series. We started out reading them to him and now he reads them on his own. He gets so excited everytime he starts a new one. He is transported into the story and his face lights up as he's recapping the chapters he's just read. We have the first 50 or so books in the series and we got them all at Barnes and Noble.
There are lots of "bedtime" books out there that break stories up into logical sections that you are meant to read every night. I have a large book (can't remember the name) that my parents used when I was a child in the early 1980s. If I were you, I'd visit my local public library and talk to a children's librarian. They LOVE to put all that book knowledge to use by helping patrons find just the right books. I noticed that you live in Grand Prairie. You can visit the Irving Public Library - they have all kinds of lists of age-appropriate children's books. The staff in the children's section is extremely helpful! You can also send them an email through their website. http://cityofirving.org/library/forms/childrefquery.html
My daughter loves the Junie B Jones series chapter books; I know you've got boys, but Junie isn't too girly at all! She's hilarious, infact, and my husband and I both enjoy reading the books and even laugh about them afterwards.
We've also just begun Roald Dahl's books, which my husband loved as a boy. We just finished George's Marvelous Medicine, which was a riot.
I'd suggest going to Borders and checking out the early reader's chapter books section (can't remember exactly what the title of the section is, but an employee can point you in the right direction). Along with Junie B Jones you'll find tons of other titles/series that would be great for your guys!
