Early Chapter Books for Girls with Pictures

Magic Bunny – Dancing Days

Contrary to what the name and cover suggests this is a book about a girl who loves to dance. Sue Bentley’s magic animal series of stories are all about girls learning how to cope with life’s little hurdles with the help of invisible friends (cute little magic animals who are really more majestic animals in disguise).

I couldn’t really figure out why Zoe was so keen on these books from first glance but they are definitely in her “so good I want to read it again” category. I read this one to my younger daughter yesterday to see what it was all about and once I realised Magic Bunny Dancing Days was really about a girl who loves to dance it was clear why Zoe loved it. Dancing, friends, furry animals and magic all in one story – what more could a little girl ask for!! Maya enjoyed the story too but it did take her a while to really follow what was going on so I’d probably stick to over 5s for this series.

The Magic Animals series by Sue Bentley includes books about various bunnies, kittens, ponies, puppies…. and more importantly little girls.

More about/purchase Magic Kitten Dancing Days

More Magic Animal Books We Love…

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Magic Ballerina Books

Superbly written for young girls by prima ballerina Darcey Bussell, the Magic Ballerina stories are ideal for young girls who love ballet, dancing and fairy tales. These were some of the junior first chapter books that Zoe read all the way through herself. Even though they were a bit harder than the others she’d been reading she loved the story lines so much she just didn’t want to stop – it was like magic.

At the end of each book are 2 pages dedicated to ballet positions to get your little ballerina practising her moves – these were a real hit.

There are 4 different series of Darcey Bussell’s Magic Ballerina Books, each about a different young girl who is learning ballet and needs some help inspiring her to become a talented ballerina. Delphie is the first of the ballerinas and she is given a pair of magic red ballet shoes by her teacher. The shoes take her to magical land where she becomes part of a popular ballet or fairy tale and helps to save the day. There’s plenty of good versus evil and learning how to be a better person in each tale. At the end of each series, when the girl has outgrown her shoes she must pass them on to a new ballerina whom she thinks is worthy. Rosa, Jade and Holly all follow.

Delphie and the Magic Ballet shoes is the first book. Zoe didn’t actually read the books in order or even keep to the same series but you could try to if you felt it was important. I read some of these to my younger daughter Maya and she was equally spellbound so I’d also recommend them as stories to ready pre-schoolers and early readers if they are interested in ballet.

More about/purchase Delphie and the Magic Ballet Shoes

More Magic Ballerina Books that we loved…

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers, Uncategorized

Secret Unicorn Series

For girls who love horses and stories about young girls, the My Secret Unicorn series are perfect. The Secret Unicorn stories are about a young girl called Lauren and her horse Twilight (who magically turns into a unicorn) who undertake a number of magical adventures with their friends.

Zoe finds these stories so engaging that she’ll read them all the way through in one sitting. The story lines are easy to follow and there are 2 or 3 sketch drawings in each chapter to help the younger readers imagine what things look like.

What Zoe Thinks….

I like these books because they involve unicorns and horses and girls. When I read them it makes me feel happy. I like them so much I want to read more and more of them.

Find out more about/purchase My Secret Unicorn – Starry Skies

Other My Secret Unicorn Books We Love….

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Rainbow Magic Fairies

The most popular books we have ever read, the Rainbow Magic Fairy books have been in and out of our house for nearly a year now and the girls adore them.

The Rainbow Magic stories all follow a similar plot (and yet still the girls don’t get bored with them!). One of the fairies has had their special magic item stolen or about to be stolen Jack Frost’s goblins. 2 friends, Rachel and Kirsty, who are friends of the fairies get asked to help out to save the object so that all is well in both Fairyland and the human world. The girls go on a series of adventures with the fairy concerned and sometimes get turned into fairies themselves. Only they know about the fairies and goblins so they risk everything to keep the secret safe.

I’m not sure how many we have read – over 50 would be my guess. The girls own about 10 themselves and the rest I have taken out of the library or borrowed from friends. I’ve lost track of which ones we have read now but the kids have remembered them all and can tell at a glance whether we’ve read it before. Not that they mind having them read to them several times over. Zoe can read these herself now but is still equally happy to sit with Maya and listen while I read. Amazingly Maya (3 years) will sit still for over 1/2 an hour listening right through a book – and they only have one simple sketch per page.

Tip…

When Zoe started to become more confident with her reading I got her to read the first page of each chapter and I would read the rest. We then moved onto the first 2 pages and after a while I found she’d picked them up herself and was reading chapters to Maya when I wasn’t around. Now she reads them on her own in her head – they are probably a bit easy for her now but she hasn’t got bored with them yet!

There are new books coming out all the time but with well over 100 titles to choose from there’s never a Rainbow Magic book far from hand. The books are either in various series of 7 books each (they can be purchased separately or as a set) or as larger books with 3 sub-stories within them. There are pictures on most pages and the chapters are reasonably short to easy to focus on. I quite like buying books with the girls friends names on for birthday presents and special gifts.

Find out more about/purchase Zoe the Skating Fairy and other Rainbow Magic Fairy Books

Visit the Rainbow Magic website to create your own fairy. Your kids will love it.

Other Rainbow Magic Books We Loved….

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers, Reading to Pre-schoolers

Enchanted World Series

If you enjoyed The Faraway Tree books by Enid Blyton then The Enchanted World series are the next best thing. They are based on the same location – the Faraway Tree and the many different lands up the ladder – and a few of the same characters. Whilst not actually written by Enid Blyton, they are branded as hers and written in the same style. These are about a group of fairies (no children in these stories sorry) who are on a series of missions to save the Faraway Tree.

The story lines have been captivating enough to keep Zoe reading these all the way through, even though they are a bit longer and harder than some of her other books. I’m a bit sad she’s good enough at reading now that I don’t get to hear the story too so I’ll need to read them to my younger daughter so I get to hear them too!!

More of the Enchanted World books will definitely be on our Chistmas list this year.

More about/purchase Silky and the Everlasting Candle

More Enchanted World Books you’ll love….

Filed Under: Books, Early Chapter Books, Medium Difficulty Chapter Books, Reading to Early Readers

Billie B Brown

The Billie B Brown books by Sally Rippin are fantastic for girls who want to start reading chapter books. The story lines are engaging for young girls, the words are big enough that there aren’t too many on each page and there are plenty of pictures. I was a bit sad when Zoe progressed past this level of chapter book because she just loved the Billie B Brown stories. I couldn’t believe it when she sat down and read a whole book in her head one day without moving – now that’s a great book for an early ready.

All the stories are about a 7 year old girl called Billie who is a bit of a Tom Boy but gets lured into pretty things from time to time. Her best friend Jack lives next door and they go through lots of life’s little challenges together. Billie has to figure out what’s right and wrong from time to time, isn’t afraid to get dirty and is a great role model (in my opinion).

There are loads of Billie B Brown stories to choose from and you can either buy them in box sets or individually. My local library puts Billie B Brown Books at level brown (level19-22). But if you want to step up your daughters reading once she reaches about level 15 or more at school then these are well worth investing in.

More about/purchase Billie B Brown -The Missing Tooth by Sally Rippin

Billie B Brown Books are now also available as Ebooks