Hmmm. Not the ringing endorsement i am looking for and heroes shouldn’t be “vapid.” I’ll have to think about that one.
Let’s see if I remember this thread in a few years.
It seems there’s a lot of subverting tropes in this genre but…what’s up with all the princesses?
I can’t thank everyone enough!
Starter books in the Magic Tree House, Thea Stilton, and Princess in Black series are on their way to my niecelet. Holding in reserve the wonderful suggestions for The Worst Witch, Hamster Princess, Courageous Princess, and Akiko. Hopefully your suggestions fuel her love of reading (or for now, being read to) without overwhelming my niece.
Hold up–the full sentence was “There’s a series that’s absolutely goddamned terrible, but only if you’re a grownup.” I consider that fair warning :). On their merits, I think we’re in complete agreement.
Yeah, there’s no ringing endorsement for the book, but they’re one of the book series that helped me to understand that it’s okay for me not to be the target audience of every children’s book series. It’s not like they’re teaching kids some sort of gross retro gender roles or anything, and everything @Cervaise said about their value to young readers is true. Just be prepared not to enjoy reading them if you get them.
A reporter interviewed Mo Willems a few years back, and one of their final exchanges was something like this:
Just when I thought I couldn’t love Mo Willems any more.
The Rainbow Fairy books are the right reading level and pretty good, although the plots are all quite similar. Two human girls help a different fairy each time recover some crucial magic item stolen by mischievous Jack Frost.
A great book that’s for older kids you could read to her is Castle Hangnail, by Ursula Vernon.
A general warning for this type of thread: Don’t take it at all personally when the highly recommended book you provided just doesn’t land, and the kid has absolutely no interest in it.
I mean, think of all the critically acclaimed and wildly popular adult stories that you (who are reading this) really don’t have any interest in.
I don’t know if this is a warning for me but I won’t take it personally. I’m just buying the books. I didn’t write them. I’m shipping the books off to my niece for the niecelet. My niece will be the one reading them. Once I give a gift, it’s up to the recipient to enjoy it or not as they choose. No pressure from me.
Another good one is “don’t take it personally if your kid isn’t at a certain developmental place by a certain time. It is not predictive”.
There is no way my son would have sat still for chapter books, however short, at 3 or 4. In fact, he never let me read to him at all until he was in kindergarten, and then it was only Percy Jackson. It broke my English teacher heart that “reading time” was never part of our bedtime routine.
He is an absolutely voracious reader now, at 10. Inhales books. Has embarrasingly high scores on every assessment. He just was too much of a wiggle worm when he was a preschooler. He wanted to play. He wouldn’t watch TV, either.
Three years old is pretty young, but at some point you might consider the “Ottoline” books by Chris Riddell, which are great fun - “Ottoline and the Yellow Cat” is the first one of the four. If those go down well, he has a “Goth Girl” series that is a little more challenging but in a similar vein.
Not a series, but definitely a fun book for a three-year-old looking for something with a resourceful girl protagonist: “The Day Louis Got Eaten” by John Fardell. Personally I found it hilarious, and I’m a middle-aged man.
You might consider the Three Thieves series by Scott Chantler. It’s a fun, swashbuckling adventure story with a young girl as the protagonist who is clever and agile that is enjoyable without having to notice certain gender-related trope inversions.
If you want non-fiction, there is Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. It is page long biographies of various historical and contemporary women.
It says 6+, but we started reading it to our kid around 3. This, of course, prompted such things as explaining fascism to a 3 year old, what does “executed” mean, and other difficult, but important topics.
It’s a standalone book, not a series, but I highly recommend Coraline, which features a strong, courageous, clever young girl who has to save her parents. It’s much better than the movie, which invented the character of Wybie just so she could have a male character come to her rescue at the climax.
Might be a little intense and frightening for a 3-year-old, though.