Non reading scheme books and ORT levels.

[caffeinated]

Hi I am desperate to get ds reading something a bit more exciting than adventures of biff, chip et al but I don't want to put him off with books that are too difficult. What ORT levels would you expect a child to be on to read the following 3 sets of books? The horrid Henry early readers, dinosaur cove and magic treehouse thanks in advance.

[caffeinated]

Prob be useful if I added ds is on orange book band.

[mychatnickname]

Mr Men, The Cat in the Hat, Harry and the Dinosaurs, Oliver Jeffers.

[MrsShrekTheThird]

is this chart any help to you? My dses read the horrid henry books, Astrosaurs Academy, and so on - so a bit ahead of yours, and we're looking at ORT level 10 in school.
How old is he and what level book is he on atm? I'm with you in the idea of reading other than the eternally smug ort characters

[MrsShrekTheThird]

actuallky this is more recognisable

[caffeinated]

He is 6 and ORT level 6. We let him read all the picture books we used to read Julia Donaldson, Charlie and Lola etc just wondered what ORT level he would need to be at to read the simpler chapter books but Mrs shrek I guess we are maybe a year off that.

Thanks for suggestions though.

[MrsShrekTheThird]

hang on, hang on

how about....
George's marvelous medicine / Danny champion of the world / James and the giant peach, The Twits etc (the more straightforward of the Roald Dahl books)
Captain Underpants here
there are loads of others - am going to go and hunt in the boys' room in a mo!!
Another one that ds2 has adored for over a year - is just 7 but a good reader - is a thing called "stories for boys" - a brilliant compilation, will find a link in a bit :)

[AgonyBeetle]

IME they can move from ORT 8 or 9 onto proper books (HH, Sophie books, banana books etc etc).

Below that level and they might not have the stamina for longer books. But lots of the ORT books at levels 6-9 are actually quite good, story-wise, and quite boy-friendly as well.

[MrsShrekTheThird]

stories for boys as I mentioned

have also heard from children at school (yr3, but some are at the same level as your 6yo)that littlenose is popular.

[caffeinated]

Mrs shrek thank you thank you.

Agony beetle ah I see couple more book bands to go. I didn't mind the ORT books last year but now his sibling is in reception I am getting a double whammy and just want some variety for my own sake.

[AgonyBeetle]

Yy, I feel your pain. By the 3rd child I just wanted to deck Biff & Chip's Mum with her selection of 1980s earrings.

Once you know where all the little specs and bones are hidden in the pics it's no fun any more anyway. [pouts] But I still have a soft spot for the one where Nadim kicks off his shoe into a lake on the school trip and does the rest of the series with a placcy bag on his foot. And there's a running gag about Biff dropping her packed lunch. You have to take your pleasures where you can find them, y'know.

Can I recommend story CDs as well? If you get them hooked on the relevant Cds they make the move to reading the full books more easily. And it saves on reading Horrid henry out loud, which frankly is enough to make anyone want to shoot themselves.

[taffetacat]

The Enormous Crocodile is a good one by Roald Dahl, there's a picture book edition thats appealing for this age.

Have tried my DS on Magic Treehouse and Faraway Tree and he's not remotely interested. He does like Captain Underpants ( may need some help with some words, and is American so some explanations too ), Gaskitt family books by Allan Ahlberg and really likes non fiction search books like the Usborne History Search.

He also likes reading books to his little sister, the Ladybird StoryTown ones, Cat in the Hat, Bear Hunt, Owl Babies etc.

[AgonyBeetle]

This is really good for a beginning reader, and there's a series which always helps. Good text to picture ratio, and for some reason really appealing to kids.

[MrsShrekTheThird]

agree with beetle - we use the CD & book combos a lot (esp Roald Dahl, can you tell...) because they get into seeing the words at the same time as they hear them. Also with three dc I want to assassinate the entire bleeping lot of them and just keep Floppy the dog The whole thing is made so so much worse by the fact that I'm a teacher

[AgonyBeetle]

"'Oh no', said everyone."

[shoots self]

[MrsShrekTheThird]

[caffeinated]

I almost want to flog my husband on ebay and use the proceeds to buy the school the songbird phonics books instead. So much more bearable.

I hadn't considered story cd's. I shall pop off to amazon to stock up.

Taffeta cat I shall check out those non fiction ones because he gravitates towards those at the library because there grub poor selection for the in between reader.

Great suggestions ladies. I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

Mrs shrek I shall petition the government to compensate teachers for having to endure frequent exposure to the ORT family.

[caffeinated]

Ha ha my dc that just started reception thinks any sentence that starts with a letter O must be "Oh no!" Said somebody or other.

[MrsShrekTheThird]

thank you, caf

just a thought. Look at the book people - if they haven't got what you want then yes hit amazon - but if the book people have it then it will be heaps cheaper - esp the series. I've linked to it somewhere earlier

[MrsDinky]

I am on my 3rd year of ORT, and I help with reading in class every week and I still can't remember which of Biff and Chip is the girl....

[caffeinated]

I just got a letter from the book people telling me I'm a VIP member. I think that's slang for 'we want to make you feel special because you spend more money on books than anyone should'.

We all have our vices. I guess.

[MrsShrekTheThird]

lol

[AgonyBeetle]

Caff, libraries have good selections of quasi-chapter books for beginning readers. Banana books are one series, but there are loads more nowadays.

Some books are worth owning but some, frankly, are not. The early chapter books are a very brief phase, so not worth investing too heavily. Apart from anything by the Ahlbergs, which usually hits the spot.

[patienceplease]

If you can cross reference the ORT levels with book bands you could use this to look for appropriate usborne leveled books.

[caffeinated]

Agony our library has very little to offer boys between simple picture books and full on chapters. I shall have to continue having kids to justify the expense. Ha!

Patience that's very handy. Thanks for sharing. I know many of those titles would interest him.

[Elibean]

We've recently bought Project X books for KS1 at dd's school (we being the PTA) - the boys absolutely love them. Even reluctant readers are happy to have them.

Ant, Cat and Max beat Chip, Biff and Kipper hands down (though some of the kids I read with seem to adore ORT )