What age for reading books rather then picture books?

[TwoBigNorks]

At what age did your children go from picture books, Angelina Ballerina etc to real books?

I think we may be ready to move on, and i cant wait!

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good book to start with?

How did they cope with not finishing the story until the next night?

My dd was 3 when she got it. Though we did do it occasionally a bit earlier. Only because she pulled book of shelf and wanted it read. She found it fine to read a bit one day and other the next. But I didn't do it at bedtime, we read a bit over course of week during the day.

lots of authors of picture books also do younger readers. Like Julia donaldson and Lauren Child, Alhberg, Dick king-smith, jaqualine wilson, anne fine. Also roald dahl and horrid henry maybe?

So maybe try one of the styles she already enjoys but at older level.

Apologies for appalling spelling!

I have been reading 'proper' books to DS since he was about 2.7 - alongside picture books. I have found the best ones are collections of stories where each chapter is a self-contained story on it's own.

I dug out some that I had as a child so some are a bit obscure but so far our favourites have been: My Naughty Little Sister, When Robert went to Playgroup, Bel Mooney's Kitty stories, The Adventures of Joe and Timothy, and The Allotment Lane school stories. (Like I said, some are now a bit obscure!).

He is v bright and loves stories - take in details of story-content and will talk about scenarios and characters for days, so I sensed he would cope wellenough with a relatively picture-free story book. As for chapter books where the story is continuous between chapters, I probably wouldn't try those for quite a while yet - maybe til he's nearer 4. Happy reading!

Thanks everyone I have left it quite late then as DD is 4. We have started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and she seems to be following the story well and is keen. Horrid Henry is a good idea, she likes the cartoons. I also have a pile of my old Enid Blytons Jolly good stuff!

It depends on the child too.

We started reading chapter books to ds1 when he was about 3, I guess. But ds2 didn't have the concentration to sit and listen for a longer period of time and to 'imagine' the story in his head at that age, so we didn't move on until much later.

OMG, 3?! 4?! DC were more like 7-8 yo before they found any appeal in non-picture books. Mind you, they are dim by MN standards (reading age only 2-3 years ahead of actual age).

I love to get them the really long (text-full) story books in the toddler section, the books I would never read them when they were little because they took too long at bedtime. They whiz thru them now, but they can get a lot of enjoyment out of them because of the vivid pix with vivid text.

Pippi Longstocking is another good one. There is a new edition illustrated by Lauren Child, to appeal to fans of Charlie & Lola. Pippi is a wonderful character and the stories are very funny.

well, ds still likes reading picture books (or me reading to him). But as Iljkk's dc mine are also a bit dime or even worse , reading age only 1-2 years ahead of actual age). In fact 5 y old dd who likes reading also enjoys baby books with no words or just few words on page....