Once your children discover the love of reading they will need to read lots of books to not only satisfy their newfound interest, but to keep it growing to create a lifetime love of reading. Sometimes it can be hard, really hard, to continually find great books for your kids to read. That is where chapter book series come in. Series will keep your child’s interest book after book as they are already familiar with the characters while enjoying new story lines. It also makes it very easy to just pick up the next book in a series to keep your kids reading all year and summer long!
The following list contains both childhood classic books as well as new well-loved series. They work great to read aloud with your K-3rd grade child or for confident readers in 1st through 3rd grade to read by themselves. (Note: For a convenient list to to take with you to the library, don’t forget to download the free printable bookmark below!)
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Chapter Book Series Book Recommendations
Here are some of the BEST books for 1st-3rd grade students to read themselves. You can conveniently order them from Amazon using the links provided so your child to read over and over to achieve fluency OR print the convenient library book marks below for an easy way to get the books free from your local library. Books are listed from easiest to hardest with the Book Level used by most libraries in parenthesis for your convenience.
Books are listed in no particular order, but starred ones are favorites with my kids:
Henry Huggins by Beaverly Cleary
Humphrey Series by Betty G. Birney 
Boxcar Children by G. Warner 
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary 
Ready Freddy by Abby Klein 
Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne*
Magic School Bus Chapter Book Series by Anne Capec*
Capital Mysteries by Ron Roy*
A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy*
Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol*
Who Was Biographies (lots of people by various authors)*
An Interactive History Adventure (choose your own history adventure)*
Ballpark Mystery Series by David A. Kelly
Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth Series by Jane O'Connor
Amelia Bedilia by Herman Parish
Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel*
Christian Heroes Books by Janet Benge*
AIO Imagination Station Books Series* [faith based]
A Jigsaw Jones Mystery by James Preller
Geronimo Stilton Series
Hank the Cowdog Series by John R. Erickson
Soccer Cats Series by Matt Christopher
The Baby Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin
Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown
The Hardy Boys Secret Files Series by Franklin W. Dixon
Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew by Carolyn Keene
The Puppy Place Series by Ellen Miles*
My Weird School by Dan Gutman
The Mystery on the Freedom Trail (and other in the series) by Carole Marsh*
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Download Favorite Chapter Book Series for 1st-3rd Graders
To make it easies to pick out books at the library I made a printable from this list. Just pick the style you like and print that page. Fold in half and laminate for a convenient bookmark. Use a dry erase markers to cross off series you are finished with or your child didn’t particularly enjoy. You can also have your child note what book they are on in the series to make picking books up at the library a breeze!
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