How To Choose The Best Chapter Books For 1st Graders

A gift for our 10 year old son. Outlandish and silly, but just right stories for our boy. So nice to have stories where characters aren’t fools, parents are respected, and big adventures happen in their lives real rather than tiresome played out dragon/witchcraft/Video game themes.

My kids loved these books. Surprisingly I had never heard of Flat Stanley, but then I got reamed at work one day, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHO FLAT STANLEY IS?!” So I was basically forced into buying these so I could fit in with the crowd. Needless to say, these books are great and my kids were excited to read them every night.

It is well known that kids love Flat Stanley, and it makes a great project for those 2nd and 3rd grade classes to do! Flat Stanley has been flattened... and so he can get mailed or fit under doors and places no man has gone before... and Flat Stanley has some great adventures all over the USA and around the world as a result! Try doing the "Flat Me" experiment with your own child if you home school or don't have the opportunity to in your own school - trace your child onto a long piece of paper and mail him/her with instructions to a relative or friend to take photos with your "Flat Stanley/Flat Me" at various locations, then do a nice photo and writing project when you get "Flat Me" back!

This Boxed Set was a great way to introduce a few Flat Stanley stories, but the box easily breaks down if all the books get taken out at once (which is great that your youngsters love the books that much they can't wait), which is the case for any boxed paperback set I suppose. The stories will be passed on then to the next generation of 5- 9 year olds or perhaps to the library. Share these stories!

I just received these today. Very quick shipping as promised.
I got these for my 5 year old. He’s ahead of his kindergarten class, reading at a 1st/2nd grade level so I thought I should get something a bit more challenging to stretch his mind and decided to search for some beginner chapter books. I read many reviews as always before purchasing and chose this book series 1-4 and it was an amazing price! Very happy about that!

So I had my son read it and he LOVED it. I told him 2 pages and then bed time. He asked to read another page so I let him. Then he asked to finish the chapter so I let him. Then he asked to read the next chapter and I just had to stop and told him he can read more tomorrow. I’m so happy he enjoys reading this. I’m explaining punctuation and quotations and asking him questions as we go among to make sure he’s understanding what he’s reading. And he absolutely loves loves loves it. I included pictures of the pages as that’s one thing I was looking for when looking at the other reviews which I didn’t see any. So I included some for those that would like to know what they look like. Some pictures-very detailed and descriptive but some pages have no pictures which force their little brains to paint their own pictures in their minds. Simply AWESOME! I definitely will be purchasing the next set of books soon.

My four-year-old was a very early reader, and this was the first set of "big girl books" that actually interested her. While she is a wonderful reader, she is still young, and many chapter books are conceptually too advanced to be of interest to younger children. She is completely engrossed by the Magic Treehouse series and squealed "More Mary Pope Osborne books!" when I gave her her last set.

Every once in a while there is a "scary bit" that we need to discuss briefly, but on the whole, it's a safe choice for the youngest of independent readers. Be careful, though - once they're hooked on the first set, they want ALL the books!

Bought these for my 8 year old daughter and she loves them! I'm even into them that sometimes we read them together. They're chapter books but I like that the chapters are short. And I like that there are a few pictures on some of the pages. For 4 books the price is a good deal. I will definitely be purchasing the other sets. I highly recommend them.

I grew up reading these so I was pumped when my daughter told me her teacher read Junie B Jones to her class. The price is good, and my 1st grader is able to read them on her own. It’s written with childish humor. I don’t understand the negative reviews. Think back to your childhood and you’ll remember how closely your thoughts aligned with Junie B Jones. I think a lot of negative reviews are coming from parents who’ve forgotten their childhood. The “sass” and “attitude” people are complaining about is what keeps my 6 year old engaged. My daughter is hooked. She relates to Junie B Jones and needs to know more! Reading Junie B Jones isn’t going to make your kid go out and be bad. It’s childish humor and childish thoughts that they’re reading, and can relate to. Let’s be honest. If your child is influenced by this book to be sassy and bad, you need to step your parenting game up. Buy the book. Your kids will enjoy it.

I love this book. Well I bought I for my daughter who is going to 1st grade this year and she loves to read. I did not read Junie B when I was her age so I enjoyed her reading this one to me . It was age appropriate . She is just now starting to read chapter books and i love that there is a picture each chapter.

A quick summary from my 7-year-old. "I love this book. At first, Junie B. didn't know anybody but then she made friends. Also, she got glasses and at first she didn't like them, but by the end she did."

My 7 y.o. granddaughter loved them...she's started on collection #2. I'll be ordering collection #3 before I know it. I told my daughter to get that girl a library card or this Nana is going to go broke. 🙂 She also loves the Junie B. Jones, The Boxcar Children, and The Littles series. She is an avid reader.

Exactly what I expect. Four books perfectly tailored to a young girl who loves Disney and all things fairy. The text is large enough to help a beginner keep his/her place when reading. They are large enough books to give the reader a sense of accomplishment, but not so large they become discouraged. If I had more than one niece I would definitely buy this for them all.

My daughter who is a second grader got theses books for Christmas. She just gobbled them up. I love that they are chapter books. There were a few challenging words for her but over all she understood the premise. Love that they a tinker bell based and additional series.

I have to laugh at the people that said they enjoyed these books when they were young but now they don’t want to read them to their children it didn’t seem to hurt them growing up …I think it opens a topic to your children to say that Julie is using a bad choice of words and she’s a naughty little girl so this gives us an opportunity speak to our children so they understand there are people like this in the world and there always will be . I love the books and I love reading them to my grandchildren and when I do read them I shake my head and I say that Junie is a bad girl isn’t she? All of us have had thoughts like that through our young years so why do we pretend that we don’t..

So. Yes, Junie has a sour disposition and both says and does things she is not supposed to. If you are a parent who does not want to expose your kids to words like "stupid", skip these books. My eldest (now 22yo) grew up reading these books and was a well-mannered, happy child. My 6yo is now reading these books and is...well, much like Junie. We talk about where she could improve her behavior and liken her antics to his. He likes her character because she is relatable. I like her character because it allows my difficult son to talk about WHY she might be (he might be) misbehaving in the first place.

I love readying to my boy before bed and these are fun books that follow a troublemaking girl named Junie B. Jones. She does a number of things that she shouldn't through out the book and the books work through the consequences of her choices. This makes for great conversation around right and wrong and how to treat people with my boy. We read all the books in this box set and he continues to beg me to buy the next ones which I will be doing soon.

I ordered these books for my 8 year old granddaughter who is struggling to keep up with her class on reading. The books have helped her to see that reading CAN be fun! She's enjoyed the books, and reads herself to sleep almost every night.

My 6 yr old granddaughter has started reading chapter books by herself, I remember how much her mommy loved Amelia Bedelia so I'm hoping she loves them too. I bought this set as a Christmas gift. I would recommend them for any new readers or kids who like to be read to. These arrived quickly, properly packed, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

My six year old granddaughter cannot stop reading this. She reads it out loud whether we want to hear it or not. Amelia is timeless.

My 5.5yo started reading these in school (the teacher read them...) and everyday he'd have hilarious stories to tell me about what Junie B and her friends were up to. He seemed so into the books that I decided to get the boxed set for him, hoping he'd get back into reading at night with us. Totally worked, and my husband and I both enjoy reading the books as much as our son enjoys laughing along to them. Yes they use language like hate and stupid, and yes, the antics the kids do in the book aren't what you want your own kids doing, so while we laugh at the funny parts (i.e. not gotten by bad language or behavior, actual funny stuff), we also use the other parts as teachable moments. It's lighthearted enough and even though it may seem mean-spirited in the first few chapters, there's always a good lesson to be learned by the end of the book. I'm really into positive psychology and mindfulness, and yet I still find myself loving these books for their silliness and teachable moments 🙂 And they got us reading together again (& have my son picking them up to get a headstart trying to read himself! WIN!)

My daughter loves the Junie B Jones books. This collection came with several that we didn't already have and was a good value. I see a lot of people complaining about the values taught in these books, but I think it's just a decision each parent needs to make based on their kids age and maturity. My daughter is well behaved and we use these books as teaching moments. When Junie B calls a kid a name or talks back to her teachers we talk about it. As long as your kid has a good understanding of right and wrong and doesn't act out for attention, I don't think it's a problem.

My first-grade son loves these books, as did his brother when he was in the first grade. It is because of these (and the Magic Treehouse series) that my son now claims to "love" chapter books. This is a real win. You can't go wrong with this set of books, good for young boys or girls equally. However, this set does come with a set of paper dolls, which admittedly is traditionally more girl-oriented.

Great book for third grade! As a homeschool mom, I look for books that show good paragraphs and sentence structure that is also age-appropriate. This is a great book for 3rd graders.

My son is trying to enjoy reading but he definitely enjoyed this one. Easy enough to get most of the words and was able to sound out the words he didn't automatically know. Nice to hear him laughing while reading.

My daughter read this for a 3rd grade class assignment. She wrote a book report and had to make a diarama. Great fun for the whole family. She got an A. 🙂

I got these books for my 9-year-old son who is really into video games and coding. My son enjoyed them so much, he wrote to the author directly! This is the honest review from a 9-year-old boy:
"Hey justin your book is so intresting and it's very very cool it's the most amazing book series I've read in my intire life witch is not that long cause 9. Your the most amazing author ever in my opinen sorry i don't know spell you know the word I tried to spell"
To which the author (Dustin, not Justin) responded:
Haha, thanks! You got it close enough, I know what you were trying to spell. Thanks so much for taking the time to write me. I'm so glad you enjoyed my books. Hope you have a great day!

Thanks,
Dustin Brady
It doesn't get much better than that for a kid, thank you Dustin for your kind words and amazing books!

I am a third grade teacher. I bought these books because I wanted to encourage the boys in my class to read more, and I figured this would be a topic interesting to them. I read the first book to my class, and they loved it - the boys and the girls! I've already had a couple students tell me that they were either going to ask their parents to buy the books for them, or that their parents had already ordered them. I highly recommend these books!

Set comes in a nice , sturdy container that holds them together that you can place on your bookshelf or put in a bag .. Bought for my grandson for Christmas. He says that they’re a REALLY NICE set . When a 13 yo lays down his video game to read .. it’s a PLUS PLUS ..!!!