DS is 4.5 years old and he loves reading. He can read simple chapter (level 2-3) books all by himself and I was thinking of the next step up. I was talking to another parent and he said he's been reading the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit series to his kids and they loved it, and it inspired me to read big kids chapter / middle grade books with DS.

While I think Lord of the Rings may be a bit too sophisticated for DS, we tried to find a "simpler" one at the library. We tried Aesop fables before but he said he was scared of the sometimes twisted storylines (eg. why would the father bring his two kids up to the mountain and not bring them back home??) . I remember a friend of mine recommended "The Mouse And The Motorcycle" to me, and how it is his favorite book when he was a kid. We couldn't find that particular book in our library, so we find another one by the same author, Beverly Cleary, and oh boy, that was a huge hit! DS LOVED me reading these books to him. We are now reading Henry Huggins.

Do you read real novels / middle grade / YA books to your child? Do you have specific titles / author that you would recommend for reading to a 4.5 year old boy? What was your favorite book when you were a young child? There are only so many Beverly Cleary books we can borrow and I'd love to have other names in hand!