What to Read to Your Kids

The school year is wrapping up, which only means one thing (well, besides parental panic): it’s time for my Summer Reading Guide! This year’s guide, chock full of new releases, will have three installments: Emerging Readers (today!), Elementary Readers, and last but never least, Tweens & Young Teens. Keep your eyes here so you don’t miss all the fun!

If you’re local (or even if you’re not!), you can visit Old Town Books, where the guide is already on display and ready to shop (sneak peek of the entire guide here!). If you want personalized recommendations, I’ll be holding office hours this Saturday, June 1 from 10am-5pm; Friday, June 14 from 12-5pm; and Saturday, June 29 from 10am-3pm. Come shop with me: our shelves overfloweth with summery reads!

Emerging readers, the target of today’s round-up, is a broad classification: it encompasses a spectrum of readers from those who are just beginning to read on their own to those confidently reading but still happiest with slimmer stories and lots of illustrations. I’ve organized this list—a mix of early graphic novels, early chapter books, and young chapter books—from youngest to oldest, easiest to hardest. (I’ve also noted page count and included a picture of the interior so you can gauge level.) All of the books are starts to new series, many with second titles already out or out soon. As always, I’ve read them all and weeded out tons of others to bring you the best of the best!

Let’s get those new(ish) readers in love with reading and then build on that momentum!