Chet Gecko in The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse.
Jr. says “He’s a detective. And the book is really good. Chet Gecko if he finds Billy the Chameleon he gets a big piece of Stink Bug Pie. And Herman the Gila Monster is the bad guy. A kid who likes mysteries would like this book.”
George’s Secret Key to the Universe
I always know that our read aloud is a good pick when 1. there is begging for one more chapter and 2. Jr. reads ahead of where we are at. We’re not through this book as a read aloud but already I am looking forward to adding it permanently to our shelves. Jr. says, “I like the computer named Cosmos. I like all the science stuff that is on the special pages. I like the girl in the story (Annie). A kid who is interested in science would like this book”
I picked up two different books from this non-fiction series. They both have a wonderful collection of photographs of the subject. Simple yet still informative words. These are recommended by my Lil’B who at 5 prefers non-fiction.
Thanks for the audio suggestions! Now I have a new questions do you buy or borrow audiobooks? Our library has a nice selection but we’ve found more and more of them are scratched. It is quite frustrating to have to skip a chapter (or section) to get past the skip. On the other hand audiobooks are a tad expensive. I have tried librivox but found many of them to be just a bit to archaic in language to catch my children.
I really loved listening to Lauren Bacall reading the 13 clocks, you can find it here http://www.artsreformation.com/records/
Have you tried Storynory? http://www.storynory.com