Great Boxed Sets to Get Kids Back on the Reading Wagon
by Iva-Marie Palmer
For a great many students, shopping for school supplies is a real treat. This year, go beyond the new pens, pencils, folders, and notebooks for your favorite learner. Boxed book sets have a very scholarly feel – even for the youngest readers – and treating your student to a collection of books just for them (and separate from class reading assignments) will only heighten their enthusiasm to do some unassigned reading. If your child’s book consumption has dwindled due to summer activities, these sets might be a great way to get them diving into a new series, or simply refreshing last school year’s reading skills.
Here are several great boxed sets for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and school-age readers.
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Judy Blume's Fudge Box Set
Available from:If there’s a more quintessential set of reads for tweens than Judy Blume’s Fudge books, we don’t know about it. And if the young reader in your life hasn’t yet read this hilarious five-book series, you can enjoy being the one to introduce them to Blume’s timeless LOL tales of Peter Hatcher and his mischievous brother Fudge. Perfect for readers who love Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and Dork Diaries, the influence of Judy Blume on those series’ authors will be apparent from page one.
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Unicorn Academy: Rainbow of Adventure Boxed Set
Available from:Want an irresistible premise? How about a school where students are assigned a unicorn pal, each with a special form of magic. That’s on offer at Julie Sykes’ Unicorn Academy, four volumes of which are collected here for readers 6-9. The boxed set would make a wonderful surprise for any unicorn-obsessed kid.
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The Last Kids on Earth: The Monster Box
Available from:For horror that’s not too horrifying, you can’t find a better series than Max Brallier’s The Last Kids on Earth books. The funny action-adventure saga follows a group of middle schoolers as they play video games, eat junk food, and fight off monsters because yes, they are trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. This boxed set collects the first three books in the series, and The Next Level Monster Box contains books 4-6. Read them all in advance of the September 14 release of The Last Kids on Earth and the Doomsday Race, the seventh book in the series.
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Junie B. Jones First Boxed Set Ever!
Available from:The best way to gets kids reading is to make it fun, and the best way to make reading fun is to choose books with humor as well as characters who are one of a kind. Junie B. Jones is just such a character, and the first four books in the bestselling series about the hilarious kindergartner will be devoured by young readers. Junie always says what she thinks, and often does (or tries to do) what she wants, making her a positive delight for young children.
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Rocket's Learning Box
Learning to read is one of the most exciting childhood milestones, and often one of the most challenging. With this special set, kids working on their skills can learn alongside adorable pup Rocket as he practices letter sounds and learns all-new words.
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Magic Tree House Books 1 - 4 Boxed Set
Available from:Readers who are starting to move beyond picture books and easy readers are sure to enjoy the early adventures of Jack and Annie, the intrepid kids at the heart of the Magic Tree House series. In the first four volumes, the duo is whisked back into time to meet dinosaurs, tour a medieval castle, and confront mummies and pirates. Kids can continue the adventure with the second boxed set that spans books 5-8 (and true fans will surely keep going through the dozens more adventures in the complete series).
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Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Collection
Available from:Five Dr. Seuss classics are bundled in this wonderful collection. A great gift for a child entering preschool or kindergarten, this set includes The Cat in the Hat, Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham, and other Seuss must-haves. Owning their very own special set of books is a wonderful way to encourage a curious kid who’s not yet reading on his or her own but who is just starting to recognize their letters and sight words.
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The Never Girls Collection #1 (Disney: The Never Girls)
Available from:Daydreaming young readers who enjoy escaping to new worlds will find lots to love about this Disney series. Kiki Thorpe’s series features four young friends who find themselves whisked to Never Land, home of Tinker Bell and her fairy pals. This is a great pick for a reader who’s recently leveled up to chapter books.
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Roald Dahl Magical Gift Set
Available from:Kids may be familiar with the film version of Roald Dahl’s classic books, but this set gives them the chance to compare the original text to the screen. Four of Roald Dahl’s bestselling books starring his most beloved characters (Charlie, of Chocolate Factory fame, James and his giant peach, and Mr. Fox) are collected here. Middle-grade readers who love humor and magic will adore Dahl’s works.
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The Reading House Set 1: Letter Recognition A - L
Available from:These letter-recognition books, which continue in another set covering letters M-L, are geared toward kids ages 4-7. Whether you’re working on new preschool letter skills or trying to reinforce letter sounds for a beginning reader, these sets make it easier to practice phonics skills at home.
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Who HQ 3-Book Collection: Inventors
Available from:They say great minds think alike but this set, collecting kid-friendly biographies of Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin illuminates the unique minds and discoveries of three of our greatest inventors. Whether your child is curious about historical figures or how ideas become reality, these fast and factual reads will intrigue him or her. (The Who HQ biographies are also great to have handy for grade-school book reports.)
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