Best Books for Kids...ages 3, 5 and 10? - Cedar Park,TX

For the 3 year old -"How I Became a Pirate," the Skippy Jon Jones series and ALL of the Dr. Seuss books. Get a book of classic fairy tales with great illustrations. My boys have LOVED that -Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Rumplestiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. Those stories are also part of our societal lexicon, so kids need to know what they're about. Others for the 3 (and the 5) year old: A Bad Case of Stripes, Where the Wild Things Are, abbreviated Alice in Wonderland -although the 5 year old is probably ready to head into the real deal, lots of Little Golden Books like The Pokey Little Puppy. Don't forget Mother Goose's nursery rhymes! Rhymes are big at our house. Peter Pan is also a big deal -books and movie.

They would all probably enjoy Robin Hood and Tales of Uncle Remus. Unfortunately many think Uncle Remus is racist when it's anything but. The tales are old African folk tales handed down from slaves. The Wren's Nest here in Atlanta is Joel Chandler Harris's old home, and they have storytelling and group visits all the time. The children LOVE the stories -primarily told by African-American storytellers. It's a great way to share history too, and they all have a good moral to them.

For the 10 year old -check out chapter books from Beverly Cleary. I LOVED those -Ramona and Beezus, Henry and Beezus -boy and girl characters and they're great! Also -get into mysteries -Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown. Judy Blume has some great classics too -especially "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing" and the sequels "Superfudge" and one other. At 10, you can probably get into some of the really great classics that are a bit longer like "Treasure Island," "Black Beauty," "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, "Island of the Blue Dolphins," "A Wrinkle in Time," "Swiss Family Robinson," "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
OH -and also for the 10 year old (can't believe I left these off -some of my faves as a kid) -"King of the Wind" and "Misty of Chincoteague." "Sounder" -be prepared with "Sounder" for you both to bawl your eyes out! My 3rd grade teacher read it to my class chapter by chapter and at the end every single kid, boys included, had their head on the desk crying! It's a phenomenal book though -and the last three I named along with some others are all Newbury Award winners. "Walk Two Moons" and "The Giver" are also great books.

My daughter is 3 and one of her favorites is anything by Todd Parr. Maybe not great literature, but the pictures are very simple and colorful and the overall content very whimsical with wonderful messages. If it gets her enjoying books and reading, it's a start! She also loves Dr. Suess and Eric Carle/Bill Martin ("Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" , "The Very Quiet Cricket", etc.) and "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie." She's also nuts about Curious George.

I don't much experience with 5 year olds, but I would agree on "Where the Wild Things Are" as well as "The Giving Tree.", Beatrix Potter, and the original Winnie the Pooh stories.

When I was 10, some of my favorites were Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, The Little House series, "Where the Red Fern Grows", "A Wrinkle in Time" and it's sequels, and E.B. White's books, "Charlotte's Web", "Stuart Little" and "The Trumpet of the Swan." AND Shel Silverstein! ("Where the Sidewalk Ends", etc.)I love the Harry Potter books and I was already an adult when they came out - I didn't care! Another favorite of mine is "Watership Down" - it's long, but you can take it chapter by chapter. My stepsons both really liked "Holes" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" series too.

i have a 4 & 6yr old. my daughter (the 6yr old and all of her classmates) love the SkippyJon Jones series. it's about a siamese cat that thinks he's a chihuaha because his ears are too big for his head. they are really cute. also i see a lot of Nate the Great reading going on in her class. Also I think that any dr. suess books are good for the little 2. for your 10yr old, i would think it depends on their sex (male/female) they have good Star Wars books out that come in a series like the Star Wars the Clone Wars, etc. also Harry Potter is good for that age. There's Amelia Bedelia, too. I'm better with the younger kids. My niece is gifted so when she was 10 she was reading books that were for older kids.

oh, and don't forget the classics like Superfudge, Ramona books and other Beverly Cleary books. They also have books for boys.

I have a 3-1/2yr old son, and we just started getting Donald Weisner books from the library. They're great picture books, so we have to make up the stories and engage our son in developing the story. So far, we've "read" Flotsam and Tuesday. I flip through them first at the library because there were some that looked a little old for my son but might be good for your 5yr old.

For the 10 year old - I love the Harry Potter series and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Gary Paulson is a fantastic author (especially for boys), he wrote "Maniac Magee," "Hatchet," and many others. "Stone Fox" is a great story(keep tissues handy). I loved to read the BFG outloud to my students (9-10 year olds), along with "James and the Giant Peach" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" or anything else by Roald Dahl. He wrote the book "Boy" which is what Meg Ryan is reading in You've Got Mail. The story is loosely based on his Roald Dahl's life.

For the 5 and 3 year olds - Skippy Jon Jones is hilarious! My daughter also loves me to read her the books about Geronimo Stilton - they are chapter books with lots of little illustrations. Geronimo is a mouse, who is scared of lots of things, but has amazing adventures with his family. My daughter (now 6) also loves the Arthur books by Marc Brown, the Franklin books and the Berenstain Bears books, too.

Enjoy!