Book recommendations for my 4yo

[Cat98]

DS (4 and in reception) is quite a good reader for his age. He started reading Cvc words still in nursery and now he is reading yellow band books both at school and with reading chest.I also read to him every night, sometimes chapter books now as he's getting more interested in more detailed stories.
However even though his reading is developing he doesn't want to read for pleasure - I know it's still quite early but we've done a lot of his books to death (Julia Donaldson etc) so I was looking for recommendations for some more books he might like for Xmas. I was thinking along the lines of getting him lots of new interesting books and keeping them accessable as suggested on another thread. Both for me to read him but also to maybe encourage him to start trying to read them.
Thanks!

[Gumby]

Have you got the dr Seuss collection? They're fab at that age & encourage reading

[Cat98]

I've got a couple of them but could definitely get more. I expect he has just had the ones we do have read to him so many times he's lost interest! I think we need a complete overhaul of his bookshelves :) thanks

[simpson]

DD is 4 and I am currently reading her "The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark"

She reads the songbirds books by Julia Donaldson and loves the Frog and Toad books too.

[redskyatnight]

DS liked a series called "Red nose readers" - they are in 3 levels where the 1st level is simple words and phrases. They are very funny - hence the attraction.
We got our set from thebookpeople pretty cheaply - not sure if they still sell them.

[yousankmybattleship]

I think he's too young to be independently reading for pleasure. My advice would be to concentrate on reading to him to reinforce a love of books. Maybe start getting him to read words like Boo! or Wow!! in different voices when you're reading.

[noramum]

How about the Usborne First Reader books? Or if you want to read together the Young Reader ones.

I would suggest you ask him to read to you. I think at that age reading alone for pleasure is not that common and a bit of supervision that words are pronounced correctly is necessary.

[simpson]

DD can read basic chapter books, it might be worth looking at the yellow banana books. If they are too hard you can read them together.

[crazygracieuk]

My 6 year old has 2 older siblings who read before bed.
When he started school he started doing the same. He read stuff like Usborne 101 Pirate Things to Spot which only requires the reader to know their numbers 1 to 10 and looked at the pictures of books like Lego Star Wars Ilustrated Character Encyclopedia. I didn't push him to actually read- just to be still in bed and wind down.
He's currently in y2 and will pick books to actually read out aloud about once or twice a week. On other days he'll read Where's Wally.
I've managed to pick up lots of great books at charity shops and the like about subjects he'll like such as Lego, Star Wars, superheroes, Dr Who, old annuals etc

[HappyAsEyeAm]

Shirley Hughes' Alfie series - some of them are longer than others. Alfie and the Birthday Surprise takes me a good 10 minutes to read aloud to DS.

Winnie the Witch.

Nothing, or Baggy brown, both by Mick Inkpen.

I will keep thinking.

[AbbyR1973]

My DS1 in year R also reads well and prefers a chapter book now for his bedtime story.
In terms of what I read to him that he had enjoyed: The Faraway Tree series, The Wishing Chair series, The Little Wooden Horse (lovely book with great language use but slightly old fashioned- it was around when I was little and DS adores it.) We have done a fair bit of Roald Dahl, Charlottes Web, Flat Stanley, Worst Witch, Horrid Henry (which I hate!) Mr. Majeika, some Michael Morpurgo. I'm going to raid the £1.99 Puffin Classics on Amazon next I think- he particularly enjoys magical adventure stories as in Enid Blyton so am thinking of trying Five Children and It.

In terms of reading to himself for pleasure, I think it's still slightly early- DS1 will pick up and flick through books contentedly but has only really been actively attempting to read by himself when he does this for the last month or so. He is on Stage 5 ORT at school but that's probably a simpler text to what he would normally read at home which I would say was more equivalent to ORT stage 7. I was going to get some of the Usborne young readers for him to look at at home if he wants to. They also seem to have some non-fiction which I think might be good for him.

[Cat98]

Thanks so much for all the ideas, loads of useful ones. I'm glad people think he's a bit young to want to read for pleasure as I was a bit concerned! Abby - sounds like ds likes similar things to yours - I am currently reading him 'ninety nine dragons' (Barbara sleigh) but we have recently read and he enjoyed 'fantastic mr fox', 'gobbolino' and also 'the little wooden horse' which I agree is great! Will look at Enid blyton too.

I'm going to get him lots of new simpler books too and see if he wants to just pick one up one day :)

[Cat98]

Have also googled find Anthony ant and I think ds woul love it!!

[GoingToBedfordshire]

Agree that not to worry too much about independent reading, but keep reading to him.

Also recommend lots of the above: Red Nose Readers, Alfie, Dr Seuss, Flat Stanley, Winnie The Witch.

My dds (4 and 5 yrs) absolute favourite stories are My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards.