Looking for chapter books your 6-9 year-olds will love? These illustrated series are some of our new favorites and I hope your kids will love them too.
I think illustrated chapter book series are a new reader’s best friend. I was aware of a few from when I got my masters in library science a decade ago, but looking for books for Charlie (7) to read recently I’ve realized there are so many more new great ones.
These series are perfect for newly independent readers, kids who love graphic novels, and as read alouds for preschool and kindergarten aged children.
Beginning chapter book series are wonderful for a few reasons:
- They have illustrations on almost every page.
- They have larger font and language aimed at early elementary readers.
- They are part of a series! To find a book your child likes and then know that there are 7 or 20 or 32 more books that they can read is so amazing and makes finding books so much easier.
A couple companies have imprints that specifically publish these illustrated chapter books and I’ve been combing through Scholastic’s Branches and Simon and Schuster’s Little Simon to find new books.
From Scholastic’s Branches we have loved: Dragon Masters and The Last Firehawk. Hilde Cracks the Case and Once Upon a Fairy Tale also look fun!
The majority of the books I’ve listed have pages that look like this spread from Dragon Masters.
From Little Simon we have loved: Henry Heckelbeck, Heidi Heckelbeck, and The Kingdom of Wrenly, Mia Mayhem, Greetings from Somewhere, and Galaxy Zack.
Henry Heckelbeck was the very first chapter book Charlie read on his own and the one I would recommend first for new readers since it has a bigger font and has less sentences per page.
Charlie’s been tearing through the Mia Mayhem books I brought home from the library.
We also really liked Zoey and Sassafras, Sadiq, Anna Hibiscus, and Princess in Black. All four have several books in the series.
I also read to Charlie, J.D. and the Great Barber Battle. The publisher says it’s for ages 6-8, but I would recommend for kids 6-10. The font is smaller in this book and I think a little bit older kids would also enjoy the story. There are three books so far in this new series.
One other funny series we’ve enjoyed is The Infamous Ratsos. And Jada Jones and Humphrey’s Tiny Tales are two other series that have great reviews.
I generally read the first book of any new series to Charlie to help get him interested. (I also like to check it out to see what I think.) Sometimes he’ll start reading on his own after a few chapters, other times he’ll start on his own with the second book.
Finn (4) also enjoys having these beginning chapter books read to him. With their short length, plenty of illustrations, and interesting storylines they are great read alouds for the preschool set!
Finally, if your library doesn’t have these books, or only has a few and not the complete set, you should be able to interlibrary loan them from another library. In Michigan, our interlibrary loan system is called MeLCat and there is a link on my library’s website.
One final note: I have a new page with all of the book lists for kids I’ve put together in one spot!
Have your kids enjoyed any of these? Are there any other beginning chapter book series they are loving?
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