So you have a young reader in your house. You are so excited to help him along on his new journey. You want your new reader to love books as much as you do. So of course, you rush out to the book store to find some new books for him to read. And that is when you stumble into the confusing world of easy reader books. You know the ones. They are thin. They are about the size of a half sheet of paper. They are covered with bright cartoon images. And they have a large number on the front to indicate the level of reading for that particular book. But what does this all mean? How do you choose a good book that will engage your new reader? How will you prevent frustration and not squash his love of books? So you find his favorite cartoon character, you see a large number 1 on the cover and you grab it and run to the cash register. Not so fast....
Let's stop here and take a look at some of these easy reading books today. First of all, what each publisher calls a level one book can vary widely. Make sure you open up the books and see if your child can handle what is written inside. Some publishers feel that if they use a large font and only have one or two sentences on a page, it is an easy reader. But those sentences may include words like princesses, royal and invitation....not great for a child who has just mastered "the cat sat on a mat".
So who makes these easy reading books?
Random House publishers has one of my personal favorites, Step Into Reading. They divide the books into five steps from "Ready to Read" (Preschool - Kindergarten) to "Ready for Chapters" (Grades 2-4). One of my favorite books in their step one level is "Hot Dog". This book tries to only use CVC words to tell the story. The story uses repetition to help your early reader have a lot of success. Another good choice in this level is "Cooking with the Cat". It is more advanced, but by using rhyming words and word families, it is still fairly simple. But not all Step one books are this easy. "Sir Small and the Dragonfly" contains difficult words that a new reader will not be able to handle - dragonfly, shouted, knight, people, laughed - quite advanced for a level one.
Cartwheel Books by Scholastic have the popular Hello Reader! series. They divide their early readers into four divisions. Level 1 is for Preschool-Grade 1 and level 4 is for Grades 2&3. You'll have to really choose carefully from level 1 for your beginning reader as preschool students are quite different from first grade students. My experience is mixed. "The Gym Day Winner" seemed like it would be difficult based on the title. But the characters all have CVC names - Pam, Sam, Max, Kim - making it easier than you would think to read. There are some difficult pages, but again, use of word families and repetition help a young reader along. The book "Here Come the Snow" on the other hand seems like it would be great. It has very short sentences with very large print on each page. But when the sentences contain words like howl, scarves, bright and angels you realize this will be a book that you will need to help your child read.
The Penguin publishing company has the All Aboard Reading stories. They use three station stops for their reading levels. Station Stop One is for Beginning to Read while Station Stop Three is for Reading Alone. My children have some favorite stories from this publisher. But all of the level one books I own from this publisher are not books my beginning readers could have read on his or her own. I would put these books more with the level 2 from the other publishers.
Harper Collins publishes the familiar "I Can Read" books. If you are like me, you grew up with these...Little Bear, Danny and the Dinosaur, and The Berenstain Bears. And now they have some of the hottest titles for today's kids...Splat the Cat, Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious. The stories are fun. The pictures are engaging. But the reading level is more difficult than some other level one readers. Now don't think I am discouraging you from purchasing the I Can Read books. (I think we own half of the Splat the Cat books in my house.) I am just recommending you check out the books for yourself before handing it to your beginning reader and walking away.
But what about my child who is only reading simple words?
It is difficult to truly find books for beginning readers that they can read on their own and have an engaging story. Many people turn to the classic BOB Books. I used them with my kids too. These were the first books my oldest children learned to read. The author sticks to CVC words in the early books, making them accessible to young readers. However, the black and white basic artwork is not very exciting for these same young kids.
Random House also publishes a line of books called Now I'm Reading! These adorable books are about 5 inches square. They come in a set of ten mini books kept together in a larger hard cover storage box with a magnetic clasp. These book truly are phonics readers. The Animal Antics set and the Playful Pals set were read over and over again by my boys when they first learned the short vowel CVC code. The stories are funny. The artwork is wonderful.
So take your time. Look through the books and find something your child will be able to read. Find the characters that speak to him or her. And start your child on a long journey with reading.
Laura
