Moving on from picture books - which book first?

[snowflake99]

My son (4.5) has always loved being read to but has lost a bit of interest recently and often now wants to go to bed without a book. I put a lot of it down to being tired from starting in Reception but also wondered if he is bored of having the same set of books and is ready for some more interesting stories.

How did yours take to having a chapter a night read to them with no pictures? Also, do you have any recommendations of a good book to start with?

Thanks!

You dont need to go from picture books straight to chapter books without pictures. There are plenty of great illustrated chapter books with beautiful illustrations. My abslolute favourite at the moment (DS is 5.5 and DD is 6.5) is the Wind in the Willows illustrated by Inga Moore - really gorgeous pictures and slightly abridged text. My DS also enjoyed the Cressida Cowell Dragon series at about the same age, plus Pippi Longstocking (we had the Lauren Child illustrated version).

My DS has just turned 4 and loves Horrid Henry. He also likes reading non-fiction books such as those about the human body or about castles or similar. We often read and talk about one of those and follow-up with a picture book before bed.

We've just bought these but haven't read them yet.

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll take a look.

Books my DSs loved at that age were Horrid Henry, Astrosuars (by Steven Cole) - combines their love of space and dinosaurs!, and Captain Underpants. All of these have some black and white illustrations. They were happy to have a chapter a night (even if I sneakily had to read on after they were in bed!)