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My son finds the double entendres in Amelia Bedelia hilarious. Highly recommend.

oooh Frog and Toad, maybe? so lovely, such gentle humour.

GHS, Mercy Watson was a bit hit. In her own words, "It was fantastic."

BTW, if your DD can comfortably read Fancy Nancy books but not willing to read Mercy Watson with help, that might be more about interest than ability. Is she a perfectionist who prefer to practice at her comfort level?

ElizabethN, you're spot on. Mr. Putter and Tabby is one of a handful of series DD is willing to reread. In fact, we checked out Mr. Putter & Tabby Makes a Wish for the 3rd time last week. It's DD's second favorite after Henry and Mudge. Other Rylant series didn't fare too well.

aquinas, your DS is so sweet. My DD, I'm afraid, is a bit more cynical and she more or less rolled her eyes when we read the original Amelia Bedelia. I still borrowed Merry Christmas Amelia Bedelia a few days ago just in case that she is in holiday spirit enough to enjoy it.

doubtfulguest, one of the first books DD read on her own was Mouse Soup so I was hoping she'd eventually pick up Frog and Toad and we have the box set but so far, she hasn't even gotten the books out of the box.

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I am going to try to get over my reservations about her recent book choices. As long as she is not reading something that is actively harmful (the Disney fairy books are pushing this criteria), I am going to let her choose on her own at the library. Instead of arguing with her there, I'm going to start replacing her toddler-era books with "real" books slowly but surely.

What is frustrating about the stage she is at now is that she reads 2 to 5 of these shorter books per day every day so that is a lot of books she goes through and I can't locate new books fast enough. So while I have no intention of pushing her into harder, longer, more complex books, she will literally run out of books she likes (she's picky) at this reading level sooner than later. I'm okay with letting her read picture books only but she wants to have a "novel" in her hand. Sigh. Have I ever mentioned that one of her favorite stories of all time is Goldilocks and the Three Bears?

OP, sorry for the extensive thread hijack. I hope you find many of the recommendations made by others helpful.

If she has not read it, even though it's a picture book, I very strongly recommend Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. DS5 laughs so hard at this book that he cannot breathe.

Oh, and you might also look at Bubba and Beau, which is a different author but the same illustrator as Mr. Putter and Tabby. We also think these are a lot of fun. You will find yourself developing a southern accent when you read them, though, unless you have one already.

ElizabethN, that is my favorite Mo Willems' book. I know the subtext of poking fun at Norwegians isn't all that politically correct but I couldn't help but find it hilarious. I read it to DD when it was first published so she was only 2.3? I think I should read it to her again. She was too busy spotting Pigeon throughout the book that I'm not sure if she was paying attention to much else.

I requested all three Bubba and Beau books from our library. Thank you I love these gentle yet funny books written by real authors and I can tell just by looking at the sample pages on Amazon that they're her kind of books.

Hi all just wanted to say thanks for all the tips. Dd3 is now hooked on reading eggs, though gets incredibly frustrated that its a linear program and she can't explore as per her interests.....
Anyway we stumbled into finding out that if we acted out stories she got right into them which has now opened up the door to reading basic picture books which I guess is helping her read. Anyway off to make another new post now :-)

Sorry I'm being so piecemeal on suggestions here, but have you tried Oliver Pig and Amanda Pig? Or Little Bear? I keep wracking my brain for ideas that are like the ones you say she likes. :-)

mana: Very good point. I just looked up the reading level for Mercy and it is level K. Most of the Pinkalicious books that she loves are level J & some K. To be honest we haven't read Mercy Watson in over a month and the thought hadn't occurred to me that she may actually be able to read them now. We are mid-move and I only packed one Mercy Watson for this month when everything is in storage. I think I will pull it out tomorrow to see if she is interested.

She IS a perfectionist and really wants and expects everything to be easy. I am really worried about that but don't know what to do! She says she is not interested if she needs to work at something. Then weeks later will come back to it and be able to do it well. Its almost as if she tosses it around in her head until she is ready. Same thing in school, home, & even things like walking/talking (when she was a baby) ect ect. Not sure if there is anything to do about that or if that is just her personality.

ElizabethN, these recommendations are the best early Christmas presents for both DD and me. Thank you so much for thinking of DD. We picked up both a Bubba and Beau book and the original Oliver Pig story, illustrated by Lobel. We only got to Bubba and Beau as she also wanted to re-read her Rainbow Fairy books (beginning chapter book version) but DD recognized the illustration from Mr. Putter right away and wanted to read it over and over and over. We haven't gotten to Oliver Pig but the illustrations are beautiful.

GHS, I hear you and on top of everything else, I have SO saying things like "Oh, as long as she practices (music/ballet/handwriting/etc) for a few minutes, she'll figure out the rest while she sleeps" right in front of her. Grrrrrr.

Those level 1 Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy readers are actually hard to read; IMO, not that much easier than level 2 Frog and Toad and alike. Have you tried the level 2 Rainbow Magic books? They have color illustrations throughout the book like picture books but the readability of text is somewhere between Fancy Nancy and real chapter books. If she can read the Young Cam Jansen books, she can definitely read them but then she might end up getting hooked on Rainbow Magic Fairy series which go on and on forever!

I'm so glad she's liking them! There is so much great children's literature out there - the trick is just to find it. These really have gentle humor that goes over so well. Wait until you get to the story where Oliver's Mama gets them dressed to go outside and play in the snow. (I don't remember if it's in the book you have or a later one.) Absolutely pitch perfect.

She won't be able to read them herself yet, but you might want to try Milly Molly Mandy for readalouds. My DD adored those at her age.