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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

3 Great "Travel" Series for Elementary and Middle School Readers (AND A BOOK GIVEAWAY!)

I'm always on the lookout for books that are appropriate for early readers, and it seems especially hard to find ones that are interesting for boys.  There are so many series written for girls (most of them about horses, friends who have horses, friends who are horses, horses who are friends, and horse camps.  Judging by early reader series books, 8 - 12 year old girls are only interested in horses, and they all go to horse camp.  Who knew there were so many horse camps???)   

Anyway, good books for young boys are hard to find.  It's partly because I'm pretty picky (like we don't read books about underwear and boogers, and we try to avoid books with snarky kids, bickering siblings, or pushover parents.)  And partly because, in my experience, boys don't really want to read about all the female tween drama that takes place at sleep away horse camp.  

So, we're left with very little.  

In my post on all the books we got for Christmas I mentioned that we have even more new books floating around the house.  I've recently discovered three new series of books that I knew would be just perfect for my boys!!!!  (They're actually totally appropriate for girls, too!)  And of course, I'm going to share them with you!


Greetings from Somewhere
(I "rate" this for early to mid Elementary level readers) 


                   

This series initially caught my eye because it's about a brother and sister who are homeschooled as their family travels the world. (Their mother is a travel writer for a newspaper.)   Before they leave (first book in the series, The Mystery of the Gold Coin), their grandfather gives twins Ethan and Ella a journal for taking travel notes and "solving mysteries," and the twins find plenty of "mysteries" to record and solve as they travel to China, to India, to Australia, Paris, and more.  

These books have at least one illustration per page spread, so it's appealing to younger readers and helps an early reader progress quickly through the book (b/c there aren't two full pages of text together.)  These homeschooled twins learn plenty throughout the world that is their school room - there are lots of language, cultural, and historical tidbits throughout the books.  


I think there are currently eight books in this series.  


Race the Wild
(I "rate" this for mid to late Elementary level readers) 

                       

Russell enters an event which can best be described as The Amazing Race for kids.  He's hoping to participate with his friends, but instead gets placed on a team with four strangers.  Russell and his teammates use clues and their knowledge of the area in which they're adventuring (Amazon rain forest, the Arctic tundra, the Savanna, etc...) to advance to the next location and level of the race.  While the kids have to rely on their own knowledge, planning, and execution of challenges to succeed, there are adult supervisors.  So you can rest easy ;)

I've read the first two books in the series and haven't found anything I'd label objectionable.  One of the features that make these books interesting and a little different is that there are "extras" throughout  - additional information on animals, habitats, or concepts regarding ecosystems and the natural world mentioned in the text.  

There are currently four books in this series, with two more set to come out later this year.  



(I "rate" this for middle school level readers) 


                        

These books also happen to be about homeschooled twins.  Brothers Gannon and Wyatt, and their escapades in the worldwide classroom, are based on the author's own real life twins, who were similarly homeschooled and well-traveled.  The books are written as if they were the journal of the brothers, who record their discoveries and adventures as they travel from Botswana and Egypt in Africa, to Ireland, Greenland, and Canada.  Though the brothers have very different personalities (which come through in their individual journal entries) they share a love of exploration, excitement, and travel!  Kids who enjoy the books will also enjoy the travelswithgannonandwyatt.com website with supplemental travel photos and video.  

The books contain maps and photographs of animals, land forms, etc... from the story.  Each book also includes a photo of the real life Gannon and Wyatt on location, which was cool for my son, who was super into the fact that they were actual adventure-loving boys :)  

There are currently five books in this series.  


BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

OK, so now for the giveaway part!!  I have a copy of the first book in the Greetings from Somewhere series, The Mystery of the Gold Coin, to give away!  To enter, leave a comment here telling us about a series that your early readers have enjoyed (it's even cool if it's about horse camp!!).  Also,  stop by the Ordinary Lovely facebook page, and visit the Ordinary Lovely Instagram account and tag a friend in the the book giveaway post.  The more book-loving friends here, the merrier!  




a Rafflecopter giveaway

23 comments:

  1. This made me laugh especially hard because when I was in middle school, I DID go to horse camp! I probably would have enjoyed some of those series you refer to :-) Thanks for having this giveaway!

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    1. I used to go to a Bible ranch camp - lots of horse fun there! I think I probably would have read a lot of these books when I was a kid too!

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  2. My four year old and I recently started Mr. Popper's Penguins and he is loving it! We have also made it more than halfway through The Hobbit...I love opening up new worlds to our kiddos through wounded up books :) Thanks so much for having the giveaway!

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    1. Great books! My four and six year old are enjoying Mr. Popper now, and I'm hoping to start Tolkien with my boys over the summer!

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  3. This sounds perfect for my eldest. He is not really into reading for fun yet, but he does like Billy and Blaze. For read aloud, we are loving the Borrowers series. Thanks for the giveaway!

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    1. We've never read The Borrowers. I'll have to check them out! We have some serious Billy and Blaze fans though! (like horse camp for boys, hehe!)

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  4. My early readers liked (with mom's reaction in the parentheses) : Junie B Jones (ok) Magic Tree House (good) Time Warp Trio (great) Puppy Place (cute) Ready Freddy (ok) My Weird School (blah but whatever) Geronimo Stilton (too many fonts!) and Bailey School Kids (no! not that!) . Harry Potter series usually started in 2nd or 3rd grade depending on the level of reader. Percy Jackson, Gregor the Overlander, Warrior series, and Guardians of Gahoole were also popular for preteen readers. My kids all have different tastes, so when the next one starts reading chapter books, I have to search for new series. I'm always praying to find one with at least 5-6 books.

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    1. I haven't even heard of some of these! Thanks for the tips :)

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  5. I would love to win this for my readers (6 and almost 8). So far we've had several misses with my oldest: no to Magic Tree House (our objections), no to Cam Jansen and Boxcar Children (his objections). He loves the Freddy the Detective books and also Dragon Slayers Academy and Redwall.

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    1. I'm going to have the check out the Freddy books! My sons like to listen to Redwall, but I don't have the patience to read those out loud! My oldest is a Boxcar Children junky :)

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  6. Lol the horse books made me giggle. That and junior high friend drama books. I have three boys and always need good suggestions for our bedtime books, so thanks, we really, really appreciate this post! What a bonus to find books featuring kids who are homeschooled to boot. Some book series I've enjoyed with my oldest? He loved Beverly Cleary's Mouse and Motorcycle trio. We love all Roald Dahl. (Except the Witches, that one is being saved, too scary for a 7 year old). We enjoyed Here's a Penny and the sequel. Loved the Boxcar Children. Loved all of Winnie the Pooh. Ditto Paddington. Loved all three of the My Father's Dragon books. Also all the Pippi Longstocking stories - yes, my oldest son liked her as much as any boy character ever ��. She does have a horse though. She is a super power gal who lifts him on and off the porch, however, so it's all good.

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    1. Yes! My Father's Dragon. The kids love those! They're so quirky! It sounds like our kids like a lot of the same books!

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  7. So excited, always love when you find new series for me :-)
    Chuckling over your girl series comments.
    Particularly keen to see the series featuring homeschooled kids!! and believe it or not our library has one from each series!!

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    1. That's great! Our library only had one of these series :(

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  8. Little House and of course Chronicles of Narnia.

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  9. Well, I feel silly saying it, but my daughters shave loved Mercy Watson . . . Which I heard about from you! These sound really cool.

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    1. Hooray for Mercy! I heard about those from blogger Erin, at Seven Little Australians and Counting, so she'll be happy to know she started a trend :) My kids love them too. They're so ridiculous (in a good way!)

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  10. My kids have loved Boxcar Children, Mrs. Piggle,and Little House on the Prairie.

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    1. Congratulations! Rafflecopter picked you!!! Send me your address and I'll have the book out to you soon!

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  11. We've enjoyed Little House on the Prairie, Narnia (although we aren't very far into the series yet). They've also enjoyed the characters in Roald Dahl's books (I know those aren't a series, but there's a lot of books :) ).
    Loving finding new book series more especially for my boys, and also love that they include homeschooling!

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    1. I finished Narnia w/ my boys last summer and can't wait to start with my girls maybe this summer!

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  12. Thank you thank you for this list!! I, too, am always on the lookout for non-offensive early readers. My boy just finished the entire Kingdom of Wrenly series and we need something new for him, so thank you!

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