Book recommendations for 5 year old to read himself

[SpinningTops]

Thought I'd start this by saying it's not a stealth boast. I have a dyslexic DD who has always struggled and hated reading so with DS loving it I want to embrace it.

DS is in reception and seems to just grasp reading. He can read a word and then that's it in his memory. He's being sent home with very simple school books. I think he has to do each book in the current band before moving on. He reads these in less than a minute perfectly and fluently. I have spoken to school but nothing changes.

So I think I'll just do my own thing at home. I'm wondering whether there are simple chapter books with fairly simple language that he can manage. He will love the achievement of reading longer books.
We read things like famous 5 on a night and he will sometimes read a line here and there but they are beyond him in terms of phonics knowledge.

Anyone know of anything that fits the bill?

My DD is the same (I put it down to 2nd child) she loves the likes of horrid Henry early reader books as there are still plenty of pics. She also likes reading her brothers reading books from school. And her brothers football books (if ur ds is interested in football) so the likes of Ronaldo Rules which are quite interesting then ultimate foobtall hero’s but those don’t have any pictures.

its frustrating the school don’t encourage good readers.

He's pretty good at decoding and using his phonics knowledge too. I'm not teaching ahead of the phonics phase they're doing because I know teachers will do a better job but he can decode the names of difficult dinosaurs like ankylosaurus.
I do go through the comprehension questions at the back of all his school books with him and he seems to understand well.

I do get what you say but looking at the books in the scheme I can see he's being made to read each and every one in order. Maybe I'll ask them for 2 each time so we go through quicker. I've worked out we've got another 8 weeks worth of books at the current level and when he can read it and understand it fluently from read 1 then I do question their logic a bit.

You'd probably have to check ebay and charity shops for this one, but when I was a kid in the 80s we had the Puddle Lane books and they were absolutely perfect for learning readers as they had both simple and more complex pages. Bit of a random suggestion I know, but they came to mind immediately!

We’ve started Dogman and Bunny vs Monkey which are comic style books.
DS is now allowed to read in bed for 10 mins before bedtime so it’s for enjoyment.

The Wrenly series was a hit here and kick started independent reading. Good text to pictures ratio and pacey enough stories.

My 5 yr old loves dogman and a Press start game on!
You could also try the Bunny V series and the tree top series.

Toon books level 3 also do some lovely cartoon like books which are prefect for that age. The tricky thing with very good readers is getting the balance right between a good challenge and the right type of content.

My eldest is a mad keen reader and when she was in spring/early summer of Reception she started reading the easier Roald Dahl books - onto Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by the summer holidays. Other books she enjoyed were Bramby Hedge and the Little Grey Rabbit books, as well as some of the shorter Dick King Smith books. There are some really lovely ‘wordy’ picture books that your son might enjoy too - the Little Red Train series.

Sounds like your son is quite bright, which does mean you’ll be facing a bit of a fight with school to get appropriate level work for the foreseeable. Unfortunately brighter children do get let down as schools find it easier to move children forward together. And there is far too much emphasis on phonics, whereby it seems your son is learning both phonetically and also by sight, which is great as many words aren’t spelt phonetically! Just keep asking for more appropriate reading and make notes of what he is reading at home.

@SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter Oh my goodness, I loved the Jeremy James books when I was a child. I had no idea there had been new editions printed. Clicked on this post as my ds is 5 and was looking for some book recommendations, will definitely try to get hold of some for him. Thank you so much!

I’ve had two boys like this - in reception class they loved Beast Quest books, the Jill Tomlinson books (the owl who was afraid of the dark, the otter who did something else etc), and the 13 storey treehouse books. They are all pretty simple books but good exciting stories, and the treehouse books are quite funny (for a 4 or 5 year old anyway). My eldest also loved those ‘1001 facts about everything’ sort of books which he would read to himself endlessly.

It does sound like the school ought to be giving your son books better suited to his level of reading and comprehension. Our school insisted the children all learn phonics each morning together (even though the ability range was very different between the group), but then they were given reading books suited to their skill level even if that meant skipping some books or levels out.

Take him to the library and choose together. He's more likely to engage with literature he's actually interested in.

Unfortunately the one size fits all phonics approach to learning to read dosn't always work for everyone but the schools have no choice. That's what's tested and "if you can't measure it it can't exist" is unfortunately the way the current system works.....

As for good books for that age to read you have the Noddy books, and some of the dick king smith books devoted to younger readers....

A good series to work towards (although they are probably above his level at the moment but hopefully not for much longer) is the Redwall Abbey books by Brian Jaques

Puddle lane books. I loved them as a kid. They have one page that the adult reads that tells the story then one word - one line for the child to read. They have various different stages, but sounds like you could get some of the middle ones.

Yes my 5 and 3 year olds love Rabbit and Bear.. We only have one so far but we've read it loads of times and they laugh every time. Definitely good for first reader books.

I found that the Harry and his bucketful of dinosaurs books were really good for my early readers. Lots of the words are either cvc or common exception words but the stories and pictures are both fun.

YYY to the suggestion of Arnold Lobel - Frog and Toad, Owl at Home, and Mouse Tales are great.

Also Dr Seuss - designed to reinforce phonics but also fun to read. Fox in Socks was a fave in my house, and Green Eggs and Ham.

Also some series:
Mercy Watson
Amelia Bedelia
Catwings
Magic Treehouse
Mrs Pepperpot (may be out of print)
McDuff books
Mog books

Winnie the Pooh books
Beatrix Potter books
Shel Silverstein poetry books

• all accessible to a 5yo reader who has good recall.

Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey, is a lovely book.
Also, Make Way for Ducklings, same author.

Oscar the Otter, by Nathaniel Benchley - lovely story.
A Ghost Named Fred - same author.

Catkin, and The Mousehole Cat, by Antonia Barber are great stories - maybe read Catkin with him and discuss to gauge emotional response.

Books by Dick King-Smith might appeal.

Don't be tempted to let him read books that are pitched at kids aged 7 and up - the emotional impact of some material might be too much even though he could decode his way through them.

Curious George books are also appealing once you get past the monkey in captivity element.

I'd recommend steering clear of the Dogman type books. They do not teach sentence structure, and they won't contribute to comprehension or writing skills or vocabulary development. I know they're popular, and I know this may be a controversial opinion, but imo they're the literary equivalent of junk food.

I came in to say Rabbit and Bear books too.

For the future, you can look forward to many years of doing a lot of spadework yourself where reading is concerned. Don't rely on school to know what's best.

Be ready to do a good deal of chatting about books and listening and observing themes that come up in conversation and play so you can gauge emotional responses to books he's read. Circling around to a specific sort of imaginative situation or topic of conversation or art can indicate he's processing something (same goes for themes he may have seen in a movie or on TV).

I think it depends on the child tbh. They are great for reluctant readers to get them enjoying books and just reading. My DD, now 11 loved dogman. She is a voracious reader and a very gifted writer, but when she was younger she loved books that made her laugh and she loved the drawings. Dogman really did her no harm!

If he doesn't get them via school see if you can get hold of the Oxford reading tree books
lots of lovely stories etc that are simple and pitched at the right level

My little girl is 5 and in reception as well and also very ahead with her reading. The whole class work on one book together it's not like when we were at school. They all the read the book as a whole class, then in small groups and then 1:1 and the book specifically corresponds to the phonics that they're focusing on that week and uses the common exception words they're learning about, studies showed that it was better for learning that way and I personally like it because we do a lot of our own reading outside of school anyway.

If you Google early readers there should be loads of suggestions, my little girl reads the early readers Rainbow fairies but that's probably too girly for your lad. There's disney early readers but also if you're a member of the library they usually have a shelf in the kids section dedicated to early readers and they have all different levels from the basic starting books to simple chapter books.

Hi
I found this set fantastic when my now eight year old was learning to read.

https://www.books2door.com/collections/usborne-reading-programme/products/usborne-my-first-reading-library-50-book-collection-ages-5-7-paperback

Magic tree house and boxcar kids I remember from childhood. Maybe grade 2.

honestly talk to the librarian. They are usually the best resource.

then second hand stores where the books are 25c. Just let your kid go wild and grab anything. Re-donate anything that sucks.