Kids' Book Series You Might Not Know About

After finishing kindergarten, Eliot worked hard all summer to meet his reading goals by filling out a reading chart. Sometimes kids are ready for the next step in reading before you even realize it. On a whim, my husband suggested that we buy Eliot his first chapter book while walking through Target one day. We chose the first Magic Treehouse book, and, sure enough, Eliot ripped through the book in two sittings.

Ever since, Eliot has been devouring books at a rate that I couldn't keep up with. I'm always looking for new chapter books series for him, but I couldn't find much "new" online other than Captain Underpants and The Boxcar Children. Don't get me wrong. I love The Boxcar Children, but I wanted to see if there was anything more recent out there. So, here are some book series that Eliot and I have loved so far!

The Bad Guys. I think this series might be our favorite. The Bad Guys is about a team of "bad guy" animals who decide that they want to be good. A wolf, shark, snake, spider, and piranha team up in this graphic novel. And the books are really, really funny. The books have lots of pictures, but also a lot of words per page, so kids aren't too overwhelmed with all the words. There are currently four books, and Eliot and I have already pre-ordered book five!

The Last Firehawk. The Last Firehawk series is rather new. The first book came out in September and the next one will be out at the end of November. There are four books announced in the series (so far). When I saw this book on the Scholastic website, I immediately thought of the Redwall series. I mean, who doesn't like talking forest animals? I really appreciate books published by Scholastic. The books are labeled by "interest level" and "reading level." Also, each page has a picture to keep readers engaged. The font is large and easy to read. 

Dragon Masters. We have just read the first book in this Dragon Masters series, but we have two more on the shelf. We're planning to start Book Two tonight! It is also published by Scholastic, which helps us keep going with pictures and large font. I also like the series because it poses questions of character development. The reader can draw parallels between Drake (the protagonist) and his dragon. By the end of the book, the reader is questioning who is "good" and who is "bad." As the series continues, I am sure that we will see changing character dynamics and analyze conflicts other than external conflicts.

Doodle Adventures. I also bought this on a whim at Target. Doodle Adventures tell a story in a comic and allow the reader to participate. It's kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure except you get to draw yourself into the story. The speaker addresses you (the reader) and you create a "file" on yourself, give yourself an "agent" name, and engage in the story. For example, if you need to cross a river, you might draw rocks to step on or a bridge or a rope--whatever you want! It helps keep the reader interested and creative by working on drawing and spelling as well.

Narwhal and Jelly. These graphic novels are a quick read. Eliot read the two books in one sitting each. Eliot actually read the whole first book to his class, and all of the kids loved it. The drawings are simple and aesthetically pleasing while the story is about two unlikely friends--and it's rather funny. The next book comes out in March!

My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish. According to Amazon, this series is suggested for ages 7 to 10. It has less pictures and many more pages, so when Eliot gets reading fatigue, I read a couple of pages too and encourage him that, yes, this is harder, but he is doing something BIG. We're just a few chapters in, but Eliot thinks it is funny and really likes it. These books might be good if your early reader is looking for a challenge.