Easy Children's Readers

As the school year progresses, has your young child been traveling down the exciting, but sometimes frustrating road to reading?  In addition to the Fontas & Pinnell Guided Reading system used by the Lake Forest Public Schools, there are many excellent progressive phonics and easy reader series for newly emergent readers.  You and your child might wish to try some of these popular books, many written by quality children’s authors with well known characters :

 Bob Books   These small, color coded boxed sets are an ideal starting point for children who are sounding out words and creating simple sentences.  Set One is also available with a read along disc to add auditory support. 

Child’s World has reissued a phonics set  with updated illustrations covering the entire alphabet of hard and soft consonants and vowels, from Amy’s Race  to Zack’s Zippers.

Once your new reader is comfortable with  word recognition and comprehension there are progressive reader sets that combine high interest subjects with increasing levels of difficulty:

 Step into Reading  has 5 levels, starting at Preschool Ready to Read.  Popular licensed characters from Disney and Barbie and some nonfiction.

Star Wars easy readers

 DK Readers offers 4 levels from Beginning to Read (simple sentences with new word repetition).  This series is popular with boys as they read about Star Wars, Lego characters, Pokemon, and various superheroes.

The Cat in the Hat

I Can Read (also known as Beginner Books) is the home of the classics.  Ready for The Cat in the Hat, Frog and Toad, or Danny and the Dinosaur?  A wide array of quality readers at several different levels.  Sometimes a child just enjoys practicing and exploring his new found skills without the strict hierarchy of levels.

 When your reader progresses from reading single sentences to short easy chapters, look for series written with a controlled vocabulary by popular children’s authors expressly for this level of comprehension. Cynthia Rylant has several : Henry and Mudge,  Mr. Putter & Tabby, and Poppleton.  The easy reader section is also where you will find the humorous Amelia Bedelia and detective Nate the Great.

     

 Lately, some easy versions  have introduced popular fiction series to the emerging capable reader:  The Boxcar Children, Amber Brown, and Black Beauty.

We group our readers by author, not series, so a certain series level may be found throughout the collection.

Pinpoint Reading

Guiding children to appropriate reading material is a task most parents heartily participate in.  We librarians are equally interested in assisting young people in finding books that are readable, yet challenging and will provide a quality reading experience.  Educators have attempted to systematize the learning to read process through different gradient systems.  Adult panels come up with “nominee” lists for children to read and vote on, create grade level lists, and request book suggestions which tie-in to school wide assignments and promotions.  Our Children’s Library cooperates fully with schools by labeling and housing together books which have been leveled, numbered, nominated or required as part of a summer reading assignment. Currently we have shelves of books according to Guided Reading Level, Monarch, Bluestem, and Rebecca Caudill nominees, and District67’s  Character Traits books.  We have lists of suggested books by grade  and easy access to the Lexile level of most books, including a list of high level (over 1000) books for young readers.  Parents and students can take advantage of these pinpointed reading materials by knowing the student’s  Guided Reading Level letter, or Lexile number.  Is there a summer reading assignment tucked in your child’s backpack?  Don’t wait until the last few days before school starts to begin.  The book you want may be unavailable!

But to paraphrase, if you label it , will they read it?  Learning to read is an individual process that can occur in leaps and bounds, or plateaus.  Telling a child to read only books which correspond to his or her tested number or letter can stagnate progression.  The systems themselves operate on algorithms which sometimes give confusing or misleading results.

Same Guided Reading Level  (M) ...

... as this book.

  Simple picture books, easy readers and chapter books may all share the same Guided Reading letter.  Children who have tested at a high Lexile level are discouraged from reading “easy” books, even though the subject matter appeals to their age group.  Most importantly, children may be discouraged from exploring a wide range of books.  The best motivation for improving reading skills is interest in the book itself.  Do we only want children to read the books that have been deemed “the best” by adults,

Do you know this book?

But I bet you've heard of this  popular  series

 or correspond to their grade? I would like to see levels and lists used as a starting point, not to pinpoint.