What next?

At some point all readers encounter the "What do I read next? quandary.

"I'm wondering what to read next. I've finished all the children's books." Matilda ~ Roald Dahl

Maybe you just finished the Hunger Games Trilogy and now you want to read something similar.

Perhaps, you have read every book by Stephen King and are searching for an author that is equally prolific and terrifying.

There are some great websites out there such as:
What should I read next?
Good Reads
Library Thing

Or you could simply ask your local librarian. We love to talk about books and are always excited to dish on authors, series, new releases, etc.

If you are a parent, however, you understand that when children are trying to choose a book to read the process can become emotional, frustrating, and totally illogical. Part of this is because kids cannot resist any opportunity to vex their parents (I truly believe this, my daughter would argue the color of grass just for the sake of arguing).  Another reason, though, is that kids do not like change. If they like a particular author, series, or book  they will continue to read and reread it over and over and over before trying something new and unkown.

Case in point, is something that I refer to as Wimpy Kid Syndrome. This is the kid that comes to the library with his or her exasperated mother who informs me that her child will not read anything but Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Fortunately (and unfortunately) the rampant success of Jeff Kinney's books have resulted in a multitude of copycats. I say unfortunately because many of these are not very good and are simply authors jumping on the doodled journal bandwagon.


Some of the better ones are: Dork Diaries, Big Nate, Timmy Failure, and The Popularity Papers.

Eventually, though, the child must accept the reality that not all books will have adorable stick figure doodles and less than 20 words per page. THE HORROR!

So what do Wimpy Kid fans read next, then? There are a lot of hilariously funny, well written books and some of them contain a few pictures (just in case you child needs to be weaned slowly).
My Favorites are:

Origami Yoda  by Tom Angleberger
NERDS by Michael Buckley
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford
Jacob Wonderbar by Nathan Bransford
Popular Clone by M. E. Castle
The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander
Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung
Aliens on Vacation by Clete Smith


You have probably noticed that most of these books seem skewed towards boys, but it is so much easier for girls to read boy fiction versus boys reading girl fiction.


Here are some amazing books with girl protagonists:
Penelope Crumb by Shawn K. Stout
The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
Sleuth or Dare by Kim Harrington
My Life in Pink & Green by Lisa Greenwald
Prairie Evers by Ellen Airgood
Ivy's Ever After by Dawn Lairamore
Dear Know-it-All by Rachel Wise
Eleven by Lauren Myracle



I could go on and on and on like the energizer bunny (didn't I tell you that librarians love to talk about books), but I will stop for now. Hopefully there are some readers out there who will enjoy my recommendations and not need doodles in every book they read.