I don’t know how you handle buying your children books, but my girls know the one thing I rarely say no to when they ask is books. The oldest was allowed to purchase $53 worth of books from the latest Scholastic flyer and I just finished volunteering at my youngest daughter’s school book fair, where I plunked down almost $50. As long as they read them, I’m happy.
My daughters are very different from each other, and perhaps most noticeably in the area of reading. The older one avoids reading as if she might catch the Swine Flu by picking up a book, while the little one has been a lover of books since she was able to lift her head from the crib mattress. I have found two books, however, that my reluctant reader will gladly select when it is time for her daily reading: Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story and Katie & Kimble: The Magic Wish.
The Katie & Kimble series by Linda Thieman is about a young girl named Katie Russell, who moves with her family to the country. In their new home, she discovers the ghost of a ten-year-old girl named Kimble. The two become fast friends.
The main source of conflict in the first book is that Kimble doesn’t know what happened to her mother and asks Katie to help her uncover the truth. In Book 2, Katie and Kimble make a special wish that turns Kimble human for two days, which leads to all kinds of fun adventures.
These books are geared toward children ages 7 to 10, so our eight-year-old is the perfect age for these. She quickly made her way through Book 1, is almost done with Book 2, and is anxious for the author to finish with the third book in this series. You can find out more by visiting the Katie & Kimble blog.
Now it’s your turn to share. Do you find it hard to say no when your children and/or grandchildren ask for books? Have you found any books your reluctant readers will sit down with? What is a recent favorite book you’ve read together?
The Children's and Teens' Book Connection 
My 7 year old is in AR and she has a 2.4 (I think) but she only likes reading if SHE picks the book. Book Fair…well that’s always a $100 down the drain because she loves to buy books. I don’t mind though because I’m thinking she’ll end up being a book lover like me. I have a hard time telling her no when it comes to books but she loves the Junie B Jones books.
I don’t have children of my own, but I usually buy books for gifts. I’ve got 13 nieces & nephews. All are avid readers, but they are all growing up. The youngest is nine. They loved “Hank the Cow Dog”, the Lightning Thief”, “Junie V. Jones” and “The Box Car children.
Books are one of my favorite gifts to give. Board games are 2nd. They’re always clamoring for the hottest video games, but I refuse to buy them.
Happy New Year,
J. Aday Kennedy
The Differently-Abled Children’s Author
http://www.jadaykennedy.com
My sons are grown, but my grandchildren expect me to give them books on holidays and birthdays. It’s become a tradition, I suppose. I find so many good ones on the blogs I visit. I’ve heard about the Katie and Kimble books and hope to check on them soon.
Thanks, Cheryl.
Thanks for stopping by ladies. Kris, I just bought my daughter the Junie B Jones books.
Cheryl
Books make great gifts, both for kids and grown-ups. I still have most of the ones I was given as a kid, shared many of them with my daughter, and now my grandson is enjoying them. Of course they both got new books of their own, too.
Thanks, Cheryl! It’s always so thrilling to hear when Katie & Kimble holds a young reader’s interest. Tell your daughter I hope to have book 3, Katie & Kimble: The Golden Door, out the first half of this year.
Linda Thieman
author, Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story
My son is a teenager and prefers to buy his own books or get them from the library. Sad to say he is not a reader like I am. When he was younger, I bought him lots of books and we would sit down and read together. Sometimes I really miss those days.
How great to hear about you all! Both my daughters love books. My 6y.o.lovesreading books with humor!and when she reads that to my 4y.o.it becomes even funnier! Now being an author myself
of children’s books series they’ve fallen in love with the characters in our books. In fact one of my daughters wanted a pink rabbit which
we do have in our books and the other daughter gave it a sweet name to it too!
Thanks for stopping by everyone. Janet, I wish I had held onto some of the books from my childhood, but sadly, I gave them away, and now I wish I had a couple of them for my girls.
Susanne, my son isn’t much of a reader either. Never was, but at least when he was young we read together.
How wonderful that your girls love your books, Seema. My girls keep waiting for my first one to come out this fall. My oldest wants to illustrate a book for me too. Now that should be fun!
Keep writing Linda. She can’t wait for it!
Thanks again for dropping by everyone!
Cheryl
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Both my sons (age 24 and 15) love to read like I do. My daughter on the hand is barely a reader. When I got my first contract for my JGDS series though, I printed out the story for her to read and she read and exclaimed, “Mama, that was good. When is the second one going to be ready?” That just tickled me pink. But alas, she’s not interested in reading any more of them, no matter how much I ask her. Although my youngest loves to read, he’s not read any of my books, but a couple of his friends have at least the first book and have read it.
When I was younger, my godmother would give me books as “just because” gifts. So I would receive books for Christmas, birthdays and “just because” days. I never knew when I would get a package of books from her. I would sit down with my brothers (of course this was before I could actually read the words) and “read” to them like I knew what I was talking about.
I enjoy books and found a wonderful place in Savannah when I was there for the Savannah Children’s Book Festival this past November. I did get into a little trouble with the place but not too much. It’s a book warehouse of sorts. They sell library books that have been pulled from the shelf and other books – really cheap – 99 cents for paperback mysteries; 50 cents for some stocking stuffer type giftie books or other things; (I found some tote bags with USA flags on them for 50 cents which I plan on using as giveaways for my series now in addition to the puzzles); and lots of other items – like VBS kits for different things – multipack stuff. I could have spent several days in there and lots fo money (I did spend almost $70 over the course of the weekend though). I buy stuff from the Scholastic flyers from the teacher in Utah I’m working with but my kids not so much (of course they hardly ever tell me when the book fairs are or anything any more). But yes, I’m a reader and am always looking for new books to read. E 🙂
—————
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of the JGDS, 50-state, mystery, trivia series
STATE OF WILDERNESS, book 1, now available.
STATE OF QUARRIES, book 2, now available.
STATE OF RESERVATIONS, book 3, available February/March 2010
STATE OF ALTITUDE, book 4, available April/May 2010
STATE OF SECESSION, book 5, available summer 2010
STATE OF NATURE, book 6, available fall 2010
Thanks for stopping by Elysabeth. That’s one of the reasons I don’t go to bookstores because I could come out having spent hundreds of dollars–which makes no sense when I have about 40 books in my TBR pile right now.
Hey, I see Book 3 of the JGDS series is due out soon. I can’t wait to read it!
Cheryl
I’m looking forward to it coming out soon myself. It’s been a long time coming. The next four will be out on schedule hopefully. With a new publicist and a new schedule to have everything done, I’m in a bit of a spot to finish writing several stories at once and since the dang characters aren’t cooperating, I’m not getting very far right now but I will be buckling down and getting the stories written as fast as I can. I’ll email you when the third is available – E 🙂