2023 Gift Guide: Illustrated Chapter Books for Ages 5-10
November 17, 2023 § 2 Comments
Today’s installment of the Gift Guide is a small but mighty selection of books perfect for reading aloud or building the momentum of emerging or newly confident readers. This is the first time my Gift Guide has included a collection like this, simply because these types of books don’t typically look or feel particularly gifty. But this year offered some gems, including re-released, souped-up classics, as well as new series written or illustrated by some of the finest and funniest creators today.
There’s an array of ages and levels represented, with some titles considered early chapter books and others designed for strong readers overwhelmed by the longer, more serious titles of traditional middle-grade. The headlines will give you age range suggestions, while the interior photos will help you gauge language and words per page.
Everything below is either a stand-alone story or the first in a series. So, before we go any further, you need to know that three of the very best chapter series for emerging readers (also for reading aloud) got new installments this year, so if you haven’t gotten your hands on Dory Fantasmagory: Can’t Live Without You, Cornbread & Poppy at the Museum, and Anne Dares, add these to your gift list. And if you don’t know these series, remedy that immediately, I implore you.
As always, titles are in stock at Old Town Books, though I encourage you to support an indie near you.
Let’s begin! And remember, those with more mature readers may want to scroll past the first two titles here and get straight to the meatier stuff.
For the Seafarer
Trim Sets Sail and Trim Helps Out
by Deborah Hopkinson; illus. Kristy Caldwell
Ages 5-9
With the air of a classic, Trim Sets Sail and Trim Helps Out, the first in a seafaring historical fiction series, with two more titles to follow next year, offer short, intermediate sentences and plenty of white space for developing readers. And yet, Deborah Hopkinson’s expert storytelling, alongside Kristy Caldwell’s atmospheric art, elevates their look and feel.
Captain Flinders is certain that Trim, an adventure-hungry stowaway inspired by a 18th century British explorer’s real-life cat, will make a fine ship’s cat. Jack, the parrot aboard, isn’t so sure, and he takes every opportunity to convince Trim that he isn’t cut out for life at sea. But Jack’s skepticism only serves to strengthen Trim’s resolve, and when Trim saves Jack from his own peril, the two become affectionate allies.
As Trim’s seafaring adventures continue, we learn about what day-to-day life at sea is like, including patrolling the hold for vermin. Which would be a great task for Trim, assuming he knew what a rat looked like and didn’t mistake one for a friend…oops. “Trim knew he still had a lot to learn. But he would always try to be the best ship’s cat who ever lived.”
For the Friend
Drag and Rex: Forever Friends
by Susan Lubner; illus. Blythe Russo
Ages 6-9
The odd couple is one of the oldest tropes in early chapter books, from classics like Frog and Toad to modern favorites like Beth Ferry’s Crab and Snail. And yet, Drag and Rex still boasts fresh, funny banter between two friends—a T. Rex and a dragon—who couldn’t be more different but who complement each other just the same.
The series opener includes three interconnected, three-chapter stories, with ultra-charming full-color artwork on every page (seriously, the little comic touches in Blythe Russo’s art are priceless). Snippets of these two roommates’ daily lives—the decision paralysis of what to eat for breakfast, the drawn-out dressing for a snowy adventure outside—are made sweeter because of the compassion they employ, the forgiveness they sometimes need to offer, and the diversions they interject.
Also, their favorite pastimes are knitting and reading so…
For the Hero
My Father’s Dragon: 75th Anniversary Edition
by Ruth Stiles Gannett
Ages 7-10
How do chewing gum, hair ribbons, and six magnifying glasses help a little boy rescue an enslaved dragon on a wild island of ferocious talking animals? There are few illustrated chapter books written with as much wit, cleverness, and heart as Ruth Stiles Gannett’s beloved My Father’s Dragon, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year with an oversized, full-color hardback edition. This was actually the very first chapter book I ever read to my son, and it has remained a family favorite. (There are two sequels.)
If the story sounds fantastical, then the narrator, merely reporting the facts of his father’s boyhood, begs to differ. It starts with a starving alley cat, who a boy named Elmer Elevator feeds over the protests of his mother. In turn, the cat regales Elmer with tales of a place called Wild Island, whose lazy inhabitants have captured a yellow-and-blue striped dragon to serve as their ferry across a river they could easily walk around. Elmer packs a bag and runs away in search of this dragon to free and befriend, raging rhinoceroses and ranting gorillas be darned. Because what if having a dragon for a friend gives a boy his chance to fly?
This new anniversary edition contains a forward by acclaimed children’s author Philip Stead, who sums up the appeal of this classic perfectly: “I have come to see childhood as if it were a foreign land. […] Parents, teachers, and other figures of authority like to imagine themselves as guides in this place. But at best they are hapless tourists. Childhood, to a child, is a place that is navigated and explored alone. It is a wild island, a land of make-believe, where if you are brave and if you are clever, you will outwit your many foes. You will free an innocent dragon. And your kindness will always be rewarded.”
For the Cat Lover
Catwings, Catwings Return, Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, & Jane On Her Own
by Ursula K. Le Guin; illus. S.D. Schindler
Ages 5-9
While we’re espousing classics, here’s another blast from the past! Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1988 four-book fantasy series, Catwings, Catwings Return, Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, and Jane On Her Own were brought back into print this year, with a petite trim size and remastered, color-washed pen-and-ink drawings by S.D. Schindler. It’s a series guaranteed to win over any cat lover, with its tender portrait of feline siblings who navigate the world differently than your average cats.
“Mrs. Jane Tabby could not explain why all four of her children had wings.” Indeed, Roger, James, Harriet, and Thelma are ordinary cats except for their silky sets of wings. But though they aren’t natural flyers as first—keeping those tubby stomachs airborne isn’t as easy as birds make it look—their mother encourages them to use this shaky flying ability to escape the city streets in which they live and secure a safer, happier future for themselves, even if it means a bittersweet parting.
The Flying Tabbies find home in a barn loft belonging to Overhill Farm, where they are looked after by two kind human siblings who keep their secret, lest the cats fall into exploitive hands. Still, country life comes with its own set of challenges, which make for ample opportunity to discover and rediscover the value of family and friendship, as well as the unique fortune of finding kindness where you least expect it.
For the Sleuth-in-Training
Detective Duck: The Case of the Strange Splash
by Henry Winkler & Lin Oliver; illus. Dan Santat
Ages 6-9
A plucky duck named Willow Feathers McBeaver, a.k.a. Detective Duck, stars in this exuberant new mystery series, co-written by Henry Winkler—a.k.a. “the Fonz!”—and Lin Oliver, with vividly colored, often full-page artwork by award-winning illustrator, Dan Santat. Raised by a beaver and sporting a signature yellow bill “as bright as a raincoat,” Willow might not always have things exactly right, but her passion, determination, and resourcefulness make her an effective leader of the Pond Squad.
“Just hearing the word adventure gave Willow hope.” Willow dreams of becoming the kind of detective she reads about in the comic book snippets that her salamander friend collects; she just needs to crack her first case. Opportunity strikes when a large black circle flies through the air and lands in the pond, nearly colliding with her. The illustrations reveal the object to be a tire, but Willow is quick to identify it as a crash-landed alien ship, possibly with bad-mannered aliens on board.
As Willow dives beak-first into the investigation, shenanigans ensue, though she and her pond pals eventually correctly identify the object and its origin. But does that mean the man whose pickup truck broke down threw his trash away in their home?! Perhaps the biggest case to crack here is how to get through to this littering human with a clever and friendly PSA.
For the Bumbling Noodlehead
The Story of Gumluck the Wizard: Book One
by Adam Rex
Ages 6-10
If Adam Rex is behind a new fantasy series, you can expect it to be as quirky as it is inventive. Or maybe I should just quote from our avian narrator: “This is a story about helping and haunting. A story of good lies and bad truths. Ghosts and gold. The story of a dance, a disaster, and the day I fell in love.”
It’s debatable who the real star of this story is: a friendly wizard named Gumluck, who lives in a house in a hill and dreams of being a hero but who is also, according to our narrator, a “bumbling noodlehead”; or said narrator, a raven named Helvetica with a gift for storytelling and no shortage of snark. (“Maybe you didn’t know you were reading a story told by a raven. If you do not like it, you can leave.”) In fact, there are a number of folks who would claim the spotlight for themselves, including a ghost with amnesia, an unpopular fairy, and a host of not-particularly-kind townspeople, like Prince Whoop-de-doo (again, editorializing by Helvetica), that last group being especially in need of Gumluck’s unique, if sometimes misdirected, magic.
Plentiful dialogue and black-and-white illustrations add to the boisterousness of this first title in what is sure to be a crowd pleasing series.
For the “Dory Fantasmagory” Graduate
The Apartment House on Poppy Hill: Book One
by Nina LaCour; illus. Sònia Albert
Ages 7-10
I’ve previously proclaimed my undying love for Dory Fantasmagory, but what about the reader who is aging out of Dory? Thankfully, Nina LaCour’s new series for young readers, The Apartment House on Poppy Hill, fits that bill quite nicely. Nine-year-old Ella may be more prone to philosophical musings than conjuring up imaginary nemeses than six-year-old Dory, but they share a similar precociousness, including a knack for always saying exactly what they think. This new series will tickle the funny bone, while introducing more mature readers to nuanced themes around community.
Ella makes it her point to know everything about the goings-on at 1106 Wildflower Place, a pointy-roofed San Francisco multi-dwelling house with a green trim dotted with metallic stars, where Ella lives in a unit on the middle floor. When not doing chores for her two moms, Ella is in and out of her eccentric neighbors’ apartments to walk dogs, light their finicky ovens, or exchange fanciful greetings. (“It is I, Empress of 1106 Wildflower Place! Open immediately, I command you!”) Well, except for the “ancient” Robinsons on the floor above her, who no one ever sees. The only activity Ella witnesses coming from that apartment is an occasional swish of the curtains in the window; and yet, the rose bushes in that unit’s assigned garden plot are always perfectly tended, and their laundry somehow makes its way into the basement washing machines.
Nothing can rival Ella’s excitement when she receives a written invitation to tea at the Robinson’s. At last, a chance to enter the mysterious apartment! A chance to find out what these reclusive neighbors do all day and how they sneak around the building with no one the wiser! The payoff is perfection in this series starter that’s ripe with spunk and heart.
For the Storyteller
The Puppets of Spelhorst
by Kate DiCamillo
Ages 7-adult
No adult understands what it’s like to be a kid growing up in an adult world quite like Kate DiCamillo, the decorated queen of kid lit, who once again lands a spot on my Gift Guide with the first in a trio of original fairy tales. Though each will be illustrated by a different virtuoso artist, it’s hard to imagine topping the sublime Julie Morstad, whose moody pencil illustrations for The Puppets of Spelhorst strike that blend of whimsy and darkness that DiCamillo’s writing is so famous for eliciting. No expense has been spared in the book’s production, either: before you even begin reading, you know you’re holding something special. As with most of DiCamillo’s work, this one will shine brightest as a read aloud. (Ann Patchett was DiCamillo’s test audience, so you know it’s good.)
“Once there was a king. And a wolf. And a girl with a shepherd’s crook. And a boy with arrows and a bow. And also, there was an owl.” Five puppets, trapped inside a brokenhearted sea captain’s old trunk, yearn for freedom and flight, purpose and glory; and yet, they are without agency of their own. They can bicker, they can sing, they can dream, but like the universal predicament of children everywhere, their fate is tied to the whims of the adult world. Then, one day, their moment comes, or so they think: they land on a mantel of a blue room in the home of two little girls, one of whom writes a play for them to star in, confirming their suspicion that their fates are tied to one another.
Told in three acts, with DiCamillo’s signature short, punchy sentences belying poignant musings about agency and destiny, secrets and storytelling, The Puppets of Spelhorst is an ultimately hopeful reminder that though we must move through situations outside of our control, each of us “contain[s] stories upon stories, stories without end,” and that “watching them unfold, being a part of their unfolding” is life’s greatest blessing.
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Great list! You can never have too many well written early chapter books. I just ordered The apartment House on Poppy Hill!
That’s wonderful! I’m certain you’ll enjoy it!