Dd still won't tackle longer books with small print

[colourdilemma]

Dd is a fairly able reader (4a year 4) but still won't persevere with longer books with smaller print. I feel she's missing out. What do I do to help her? I suspect she has concentration issues; I have recently been diagnosed with adhd and was similar to her at her age although I did read. Partly I think her creative writing will suffer from not being "fed" with good reading and partly I just want her to get the lost in a book feeling.

[mrsmortis]

Have you got a kindle? Or a different ebook reader. You can increase the font size and it's harder for her to tell from the beginning how long a book really is. Or is that cruel?

Will she read with you? When my DD first started reading longer books we cane to an agreement that we would alternate pages. Would something like that work?

Also given that you have no worries about her ability, if you just want to expose her to stories, how about audiobooks? With Kindle you can do something called whispersync where it syncs the audiobook with the ebook so you can swap between the two depending on what you are doing.

[colourdilemma]

Audio books might be a good bedtime idea I think. And she loves my kobo so I guess I could sneak some books on there and make the print bigger! The cost is a bit of an issue-trying to use the library more and I've found kobo books to be reasonably pricey. Are kindle any cheaper? Perhaps she could have a kindle for Christmas. We're reading Harry potter at bedtime and she'll sometimes read an extra chapter herself-although it's peculiarly gripping so the strategy might not follow through onto other books. I'm going to ask for support in September to get her choosing books in school-free reading is great but she often chooses less challenging books than the top end of a reading scheme. A bit of firm from school and we could between us get something gripping yet exciting going.
Just off to consider dd2 now-four and just discovering rainbow magic books!!!! And I have actually been persuaded to read them to her!!!

[DeeWe]

Choose a book you think she'll love, read the first chapter or so and leave her to it.

With dd2 telling her to put her light out and go to sleep quickly encourages her to finish the book more than anything else.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Agree with audio books (how to train your Dragon books are brilliant) and a kindle. I have poor eyesight so being able to make the print larger is invaluable.

I started a thread like this a few months ago. One thing that really helped was to read alternative chapters, so I'd read the first chapter to her and she'd read the second chapter to me the following night. Within a few days she usually finishes the book by herself.

[mrsmortis]

Once you have a kindle or other reader, it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. Some libraries loan out kindle books. If the book you are looking for is out of copyright then have a look on project gutenburg. They have things like all the Oz books, the secret garden, a little princess, etc. Also you can sign up for a newsletter from bookbub.com who notify you of books on special offer.

[emmaMBC]

Don't worry, my experience has shown that this is perfectly normal at this stage. Making the jump from what she has been reading, to small print books is a huge step. Reading the longer books to her at bedtime is totally the right way to go, it will demonstrate how the plot unfolds slowly ... and that the rewards of continuing to read through are fab.

I'd recommend letting her lead the way. Books that combine pics and words are brilliant don't give them up too quickly - if you are looking for more variety Id highly recommend looking at Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve, their books are fabulous and pitched perfectly for this age group.

[emwithme]

My library (North Somerset) does ebooks on loan; you get them for up to three weeks. You need to download a non-Kindle e-reader (I use Aldiko) but from then on, it's pretty easy.

[iwantavuvezela]

My DD is the same, doesn't like books with too much print. I found the Ottoline books worked well ( lots of pictures), there's Goth girl (also chris riddle). Also the Daisy books have large print and some pictures. Your library will stock most of these. Even the Claude books are easy reads for this age (still in a chapter book format) but not so dense

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Jacqueline Wilson - it's like a reading drug for girls. The older aged ones are long and small print (and if you stick to the Victorian ones you can avoid inappropriateness) but also the lovely JW is very good at persuading her young readers to try the classics.

[LucyLocketLostHerPocket]

DS was the same at this age and much preferred graphic novels with lots of pictures and not too much text. I spoke to his teacher as was worried it wasn't 'advanced' enough but was firmly told that if he was happy reading them, to let him do so and just enjoy the experience of reading. I did and within a year he was tackling Harry Potter so it worked for us.

[Geraniumred]

there are also the Clarice Bean books by Lauren Child, they are beautifully illustrated and not too demanding.