Cross over between picture and chapter books

[Nousernameforme]

I'm looking for a middle ground book between picture books like the gruffalo and chapter books like the worst witch.
DS is 4 nearly 5 and we are trying to make the change we have tried worst witch oliver moon rainbow magic etc.
What I am looking for is either a similar style of picture book with lots more words preferably without rhyming, or a shorter chapter book with lots of pictures.

Mr Men and Little Miss
Tales from Brambly Hedge
Percy the Park Keeper
Winnie the Witch
Katie Morag
Elmer
Alfie and Annie Rose books
Lighthouse Keeper books
Mog books
Little Grey Rabbit
Foxwood Tales

Milly Molly Mandy
My Naughty Little Sister
Pippi Longstocking
Mrs Pepperpot stories

Can you look for comic style books, so there are more chapters but still have the illustrations
The bad guys by Aaron Blabley is a good middle ground series

There are some books about a dog (Claude, I think; red, white and black illustrations, author is Alex something; sorry! ) that are popular with that age group. Also, some of the shorter roald dahls like fantastic mr fox and georges marvellous medicine.

At the library I work in we have a section for Young Readers, which bridges the gap between picture and chapter books for this just starting to read. Perhaps it would be worth a look in your local library?

Some of these books are specifically written for that audience ( similar to the Biff and Kipper type school reading schemes) but others are just the simpler Horrid Henry, Beast Quest, DK Star Wars or Lego Ninjago stories, Ladybird First Stories series etc.

The Mo Farrah ones are a hybrid. As are How to Train Your Dragon from Book People. Look similar to a school book so familiar.

Winnie the witch and the Lighthouse keeper series are both favourites here too - more complex, prose stories with lots of lovely pictures to keep interest engaged. The Mousehole cat is lovely. We've found some nice Paddington picture books that are simpler than the original chapter books but still with lots of words and interest.

In addition to the Winnie the Witch picture books there are Winnie the Witch story collections (the ones with the yellow and orange striped spines). These are essentially short stories with more text and fewer pictures which don't consistently sustain interest yet but which I think will be a great next step up towards chapter books.

Our library has a "picture books for older children" section which is good for ideas so might be worth seeing if yours has similar.

The Happy Families set by Allan Ahlberg are a good "in between" choice too.

Puddle Lane. Nice balance of pictures/short sentences and extended narrative.

Another vote for the simpler roald Dahl like enormous crocodile, giraffe the pelly and me, fantastic Mr fox. At not yet 5 I would mainly still go for picture books though. The cat in the hat and other Dr Seuss, Mrs Amitage books and other ones by Quentin Blake and the Day the Crayons Quit were all popular here around that age.

Paddington
Happy Families series by Ahlberg
Minpins
Dinosaur Cove

The 13 storey treehouse series was a big hit with my DS

oh thank you i just remembered i hadn't checked back on this.
We did find a puddle lane book in a charity shop which went over quite well.
I had forgotten about the happy families books so i shall look out for them as well can you still get them new?
I do have a copy of light house keepers lunch somewhere so i shall dig that out.
So much to choose from I can't believe i was lost.

Happy Families can still be bought new on Amazon, don't know about on high street.

I’ve just discovered the Mercy Watson books and they are perfect for this. Quite modern too which I like, personally. Gentle stories, nothing too scary, they all end with everybody going home for food haha. Perfect for bedtime.

Please revisit and discuss those picture books though - she's too young to lose them and it's really not all about the reading - it's the understanding, the extended vocabulary, the descriptive language and the awe and wonder that can be found in the illustrations.
It's great that she's an early de-coder but that's not what makes a great reader long term, at her age she will really ENJOY the illustrations so do mix it up.

The Claude books mentioned earlier are by Alex T Smith and are very good. I would look for large font and big spaces between the lines. Dr Kitty Cat series is good and a series called Little Gems - one of them is Splash Day by Nick Sharratt. Nice colour illustrations so not off-putting after picture books. Have fun!

Captain Underpants is quite funny and accessible.

Claude books by Alex Smith

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat (and the other ones in the series)
Wigglesbottom Primary series
Narwhal and Jelly

My DS is 4.5 and we're reading the shorter Dahl books. Giraffe, pelly and me, the Magic Finger and Fantastic Mr Fox mixed with the same picture books we usually read. It seems to be going quite well. I've taken some other ideas of this thread too.

Percy the parkeeper series is nice, doesn’t rhyme and the stories are lovely.

Stay with picture books, look closely and there are more engaging ones with more text like Babette Cole’s Dr Dog.

The early reader section is where you would go next but many are hit and miss some of them using a very narrow vocabulary which can make for a dull story. Look at non fiction, ladybird do a series as do DK. I also have the ‘wonderwise’ series from Book People published by Franklin Watts. These are great to read to/with younger children.

Of the ‘learn to read’ books I liked songbirds series and we bought the series and Biff and Chip from Book People. I didn’t like the latter but the kids liked both.

Ideally find a large library that stocks all of the early readers. You will also find some (very) abridged and illustrated classics . This stage is tricky but doesn’t last long. We continued with picture books and early reader books and in addition we read books to them with much more text and fewer pictures like the Big Enormous Crocodile, Noddy, Amelia Jane, Beatrix Potter.

My kids were free reading chapter books in reception but even now at 6 and 8 they will pick up picture books from time to time.

Charlie and Lola and kipper the dog

Do you want books to read to him, or books for him to read to himself?

The Polly and the Puffin series by Jenny Colgan is lovely. My two still continued to read picture books well after starting chapter books, there was a long crossover.