Reading Inspiration for Kids in Years 1-3: Five Series the Kids We Know are Loving Right Now

Need some fresh reading ideas for your Year 1, 2 or 3 child? Series are a great choice (read more about why series are great for kids here ).

Here are five series the kids we know are enjoying at the moment (click on the titles and cover images below to find out more about each):

Little Lunch – Recently we interviewed Sydney dad Ed Muston about running a book club at his son’s school. Little Lunch: The Off-Limits Fence was the most popular choice among both boys and girls from the Club’s recent catalogue.

Each book in this series contains three stories about the crazy things that can happen during a 15 minute school recess. There’s never a dull moment! The text is accompanied by kooky illustrations. And the series has now been adapted for ABC TV.

Ava and Angus – The new adventure Ava and Angus: Showtime was also a very popular pick among girls buying from Ed’s recent catalogue.

Visually appealing, fun and engaging, with some gentle moral issues, this story was written by comedian Wendy Harmer. Previous adventures of Ava and her little dog can be found under the series title ‘Ava Anne Appleton’.

Geronimo Stilton – We know several avid collectors of the wacky, funny, highly illustrated and well-paced Geronimo stories. Geronimo Stilton is the editor of ‘The Rodent’s Gazette’ in New Mouse City. Despite his timid nature, curiosity and pursuit of stories for his newspaper take him on a variety of adventures in exotic locations.

(There are several Geronimo ‘sub series’ and ‘spin offs’ and in one family we know, the older brother is reading through the Thea Stilton Mysteries, starring Geronimo’s far less timid sister, while his younger brother enjoys the original adventures.)

Hey, Jack! – These stories are about an ordinary boy (no super heroes or spies here), tackling recognisable quandaries such as feeling nervous about playing a solo at a school concert and being the only kid wearing a homemade fancy-dress costume when everyone else has a slick, store-bought one.

While they’re ostensibly targeted at kids as young as five, with very large type and a lot of white space on each page, there is actually quite a lot to each Hey Jack! story, and we know of teachers who use them as discussion starters about moods, relationships and other issues up to Year 4 or 5.

Samurai vs Ninja – One young friend of ours who has been struggling with reading for some time recently made the leap to chapter books. When we caught up recently he excitedly recounted the entire action-packed, amusing plot of his latest Samurai vs Ninja book to me! These are slapstick, gruesome comedic stories featuring some very unlikely Ancient Japanese warriors. They have fantastic, detailed illustrations

Here are some more great suggestions for these age groups:

From Better Reading Kids reader Sharon Willcock (via our facebook page): Favourites with my Yr 1 are Ella and Olivia, Billie B Brown, Clementine Rose. My Year 3 daughter is enjoying Nancy Drew (The Clue Crew series), Our Australian Girl series, Secret Seven, and although not a series is working her way through the Roald Dahl collection. Thanks, Sharon!

And from Phoebe Bakker (also via our facebook page): Alice Miranda, anything by Roald Dahl, Ivy & Bean, Violet Mackerel, Frankie Fox, Clementine Rose. Thanks, Phoebe!