Book series for early readers

[Galena]

DD is beginning to read. She began with CVC words back at Christmas and is progressing really well (in my opinion!). She is insatiable and is reading 5-10 books a day. She does repeat them but has a very good memory, so I know after a few reads through that she's reciting them rather than reading them. I've been visiting the library with her to try to find books to keep her busy.

We have a set of 36 ORT Songbirds books that we bought her a couple of months ago and she likes those (Very confident with stages 1+ and 2) Haven't dug Stage 3 out yet. We've also been getting books from the library, but they have very few in our local library so I've been ordering the ones we want. However, I'm now beginning to run out of suggestions to order in and I was looking for advice.

Today I managed to get a few 'Tadpoles' books and some 'Start Reading' by Wayland. The Start Reading ones talk about book bands and I found 2 pink, 1 red and 1 yellow. She read the first few pages of the Yellow band book and did really well... Any ideas of other book series at this sort of level she might like?

One complication is that she's still young so things like football and school are outside her realm of experience... So trying to find things which she can read and which interest her are tricky!

At a very basic level I can recommend Bunny and Bee by Sam Williams (I think) for early readers. Mine were all reading not long after 2yo and those books are both basic and fun. They start with the same phase, are in rhyming couplets and use mostly simple language.

Mine also enjoyed the Ladybird Jane and Peter set at that age. They're long-you may not wish to do the whole book at once, but I think people remember them as boring so avoid them. Two of mine loved them and would read them by choice.

The original Little Princess also are good starters.

A bit later on the Topsy and Tim are good vocab stretchers for reading together.

Other things on the easy level is some more cartoon books (think like Tintin) as they've just got dialogue. Again a reading together book.

I found that generally a book that interests them, it doesn't really matter. You read them together and they do what they can, you help/do the rest. My ds very quickly moved onto aeroplane books with more technical detail than anything else, so he was reading things like "sonic boom" and "mach 2" at 3yo. That's what he enjoyed and it inspired him to read, and he still does.

I don't think repeating them is an issue. I know my cousin taught herself to read on the basis of books she could receit from memory.

My DS2 began to read independently when he was 2 (he's now 8). We discovered that he had taught himself to read when I found him happily and accurately reading the instructions on the back of a toy box. He still reads a lot of "non-book" material. I took him to the library and let him choose whatever he fancied; we'd then work out what he latched onto and try to find more of the same type of book. Both of my DS's loved an illustrated book of very old-fashioned nursery rhymes.
I found that DS2 would choose his own books and would often reject a book I tried to encourage him to read. I don't know if that was a boy thing, or if it was because DS2 was (and still is) bloody minded! Some children seem not to like to be told what to read. I have found that the only solution is to expose them to as much reading material as possible, and not worry too much if their choice does not seem to be "suitable". Mind you, I did draw the line the other day at page 3 of the Sun.

I have also found that once my DS's latch onto an author, they will read the entire oeuvre obsessively - I'm talking the whole Harry Potter series in about 6 weeks, about 18 months ago. I've stopped worrying about it. As long as they're reading, I'm happy.

Spot? or Miffy? (can you still get Miffy? I loved those) or those ones where each letter of the Alphabet has its own book - I can't remember the name offhand, will try and think of it though.
I thought of the Mr. Men and Little Miss books, but I can't remember how the text is laid out/how much text there is in them - it's been years since I read one.

Mr Men are surrpisingly difficult. They used a great vocabulary and have quite a lot of small writing on each page. They're great for reading to, but I've found that reading on their own they are surprisingly late.

Thanks all - that's really helpful. Bless her she loves reading and I want to encourage her without pushing, IYSWIM!

I'm afraid I don't know book band levels, but the Usborne Apple Tree Farm books are worth looking out for. They have two parallel sets of text - very simple sentences for beginner readers across the top of the page, and a longer text across the bottom for reading out loud (or of course for better readers).

The story is designed to make sense with just the short text, IYSWIM. They're nice stories about a family on a farm (mum & two children) and I think they'd appeal to a young child.

Usborne First Reading- here is their chart www.usborne.com/downloads/book-bands/urp-book-bands-nc3.pdf

Ladybird Read it Yourself www.ladybird.co.uk/ladybirdworldwide/readityourself.html

I used/use both with DS, but I have to say that in the first stages he got on better with the purely phonic based books. The songbirds which we did up to stage 3 and also these are good
ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198386643000.do

Not sure how old your DD is though, she sounds very young - DS was older, some of the above should be ok, but perhaps the Usborne Apple Tree Farm would be just right. I guess if you get from the library you won't waste your money!

Enjoy!

She's just 3. Didn't want her to start reading before she went to school (I was a teacher and I didn't want it to look like I was hothousing her) but I just couldn't hold her back!

All these suggestions look fab, thanks!

There are Usborne phonics books too www.amazon.co.uk/Usborne-Phonics-Readers-books-%C2%A339-92/dp/B003FKJE3G/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337200139&sr=1-5

We bought these, but somehow DS didn't get on with them, they are harder than songbirds and the RWI ones. We read them to him rather than he read them, but they are lovely colourful books anyway!

She sounds very cute!

Thanks :) She is - and I really ought to put a more up-to-date pic on my profile, I guess. She has CP and I think has developed the cognitive side as she couldn't do the physical!

There we go... More recent pic :)

Very cute .

:)