Books for early readers

[isabel]

DS1 started kindergarten in August and is starting to read. Anyone have suggestions for good beginning reader books?

[luv2rn4fun]

Following.

I did buy this set for DS1 just before lockdown when his preschool had a book fair. I think it’s a great start but curious about others as well.

Toy Story: Phonics Reading Program (Disney Pixar) www.amazon.com/dp/1338561421/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_4RKKFb4BV22JE

[krystee]

DS loooooooves reading the Elephant and Piggie books. I love hearing him read in two different voices.

[ny96]

Elephant and Piggie books

[isabel]

It never occurred to me to try those. We have two of the big volumes. Thanks!

[game blouses]

There are a ton of Star Wars early reader books. They really got my kids engaged and excited to read.

[abs]

Yeah Piggie and Elephant were for sure the books DD loved reading the most in Kindergarten. She also liked the Level 1 Pete the Cat books. When she was ready for more of a challenge (which was in 1st grade for us) she liked Frog and Toad.

[ssmjlm]

Pete the Cat and just about any of the beginning reader/level 1 from the library.

[smock]

DD1 was a somewhat reluctant new reader, and she liked the First Little Comics books. They were definitely a bigger hit than Bob Books thanks to lots of colorful drawings and actually funny stories. 

[felicity]

I'm interested in this too. I wouldn't have thought of the Elephant and Piggie books. He's been working his way through all of the Bob Books collections, which have been amazing for him for learning to read, and I've been looking for the next thing. I ordered Go, Dog. Go! for him the other day which is kind of a classic and on his level. I also got a couple of Step Into Reading books that had characters he likes.

[magpie]

The first level of Pete the Cat books are good. Biscuit is also really good for very early readers. There's also series called "I like to read" that has some good decodable books for emerging readers with great pictures. I check them out from the library.

Oh and if you use Epic, they have a lot of guided reader leveled books.

[CloudBee]

Oct 23, 2020 8:02:29 GMT -5 smock said:

DD1 was a somewhat reluctant new reader, and she liked the First Little Comics books. They were definitely a bigger hit than Bob Books thanks to lots of colorful drawings and actually funny stories. 

I just searched for these on Amazon and they look great. Too bad I didn't know about them when DS was learning to read! Seriously a fantastic looking set.

We used Bob Books but he felt they were so dry, and truly hated reading basic phrases like "Pat sat on a mat."

His reading really took off when we started buying graphic novels and he could visualize who was speaking.

[ellipses84]

My kids both love Pete the cat, and they are 5 years apart. I like any of the thin paperback leveled readers. They have all the different characters that age group is into, like paw patrol, pj masks, Thomas, Star Wars, etc. DK and Step Into Reading are a couple of the brands. I also think all the DK books are great in general and they have a lot of encyclopedia type books my kids love. We have a Star Wars one where each page is an alphabet letter and a character that starts with the letter. DS2 isn’t fully reading yet, but he can recognize the name and the character.

[turkletsmom]

DS loved the Fly Guy books and level 1 Pete the Cat

[abs]

Oct 23, 2020 8:41:22 GMT -5 CloudBee said:

Oct 23, 2020 8:02:29 GMT -5 smock said:

DD1 was a somewhat reluctant new reader, and she liked the First Little Comics books. They were definitely a bigger hit than Bob Books thanks to lots of colorful drawings and actually funny stories. 

I just searched for these on Amazon and they look great. Too bad I didn't know about them when DS was learning to read! Seriously a fantastic looking set.

We used Bob Books but he felt they were so dry, and truly hated reading basic phrases like "Pat sat on a mat."

His reading really took off when we started buying graphic novels and he could visualize who was speaking.

DD was similar.  She haattteeeed the Bob books and all of the school leveled readers.  I don't blame her.  

[Poppy]

In addition to those mentioned (Pete the Cat and Elephant and Piggie in particular) here are some favorites:
- Who Is The Mystery Reader?
- A Pig, a Fox, and a Box and A Pig, a Fox, and Stinky Socks
- Some of the lower level Nat Geo Kids like Slither, Snake
- Get the Giggles: A First Joke Book

[isabel]

Thanks guys! Just picked up a few of these and will give the Piggy and Elephant books a try tonight.

[namasteak]

The adventures of Otto series is good!

[yellow23]

My kids have always started with bob books because that’s what their preschool used. My kindergartener has almost worked her way through all the sets. They aren’t exciting, but I do like how they build on skills a little at a time. I find most other easy readers have harder words that my daughter can’t sound out yet and that frustrates her. I always read a more exciting book to my youngest after she reads a bob book to me and we’ll read early reader books together, but she can’t read most of them without help yet. Even the biscuit book we tried last night had words like “sight” and “flashlight”, which she doesn’t know how to sound out yet. We do love piggie and elephant books, but she can’t read those independently yet either. They are fun, but definitely have some bigger words.

[magpie]

The lower levels of the I Like To Read series is a good alternative (or supplement) to the Bob books if you want more engaging pictures. We borrow them from the library a lot.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/LTR/i-like-to-read

[namasteak]

Ds1 liked this series called Mobi Shinobi too.

[jaycee]

One of my sons learned to read with the Danny the Dinosaur series.

I always recommend this here, but go to amazon and search for a book they love and then scroll down to "recommend for you" or "people who searched for this bought this" and you'll find similar books there. We've bought hundreds of books that way over the years.

[VillainV]

Their are some good Level 1 books/box sets that have stories about Batman, Avengers, Paw Patrol, Disney stories, etc. C is in 1st and is an emerging reader, and while he likes Elephant and Piggie, Pigeon books, Pete the Cat, etc, he does better with simpler phonics/sight word text with characters he enjoys. His reading has really come a long way with phonics/sight word books.

[gt7301b]

My son is an emergent reader and some of the books he like are:

- A Pig, a Fox, and a Box and A Pig, a Fox, and Stinky Socks
- Pet the cat books
- Three up a tree/ Three by the sea
- Dr. Seuss books
- He really like reading spot books.. he still loves lift the flap books

I've been checking out a lot of the level 1,2,3 readers from the library and seeing what he likes.

[minzy]

I always recommend We Both Read books. They’re written for the parent to have some text, and child to read some too. Nonfiction and fiction, offering various levels with over 60 titles, we tore through these from our library. www.academicschoice.com/books/we-both-read.php

One example, The Emperor’s New Clothes is a fun one that always reminded me of Trump:
www.abebooks.com/9781891327032/Emperors-New-Clothes-Read-McKay-1891327038/plp

[isabel]

So, just by way of update... DS1 read a few pages of Hop on Pop the other night and an Elephant and Piggy story last night (I Can Fly) and did very well with both. I bought some of the early readers from Pete the Cat and Avengers, but they're definitely too advanced for him even though they say they're level one. I also bought the comic ones suggested by smock and he'll be able to do those pretty easily (I just looked at the A ones so far, haven't looked at the B books), so that should be a good confidence boost.

[felicity]

Oct 23, 2020 14:34:09 GMT -5 yellow23 said:

My kids have always started with bob books because that’s what their preschool used. My kindergartener has almost worked her way through all the sets. They aren’t exciting, but I do like how they build on skills a little at a time. I find most other easy readers have harder words that my daughter can’t sound out yet and that frustrates her. I always read a more exciting book to my youngest after she reads a bob book to me and we’ll read early reader books together, but she can’t read most of them without help yet. Even the biscuit book we tried last night had words like “sight” and “flashlight”, which she doesn’t know how to sound out yet. We do love piggie and elephant books, but she can’t read those independently yet either. They are fun, but definitely have some bigger words.

I really like Bob books for the same reasons. The pacing of introducing new reading skills is just right for DS, so he doesn't get too frustrated as he progresses. He doesn't seem to find them that boring, and he is super proud when he goes back and counts the number of books he's made it through. We do the same thing where he reads a Bob book and then he gets to choose a book for me to read to him.