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Original poster

Those whose children read early

69 replies

capcom3 · 14/05/2015 13:01

My 4 year old is an advanced reader, his head teacher tested his reading age a few months back which came back as 8.1 years.
He seems to be progressing fast and although that's great, I am finding it hard to find books with appropriate content.

He brings home a Read Write Inc and an Oxford Reading Tree book twice a week and at home loves his fact books on space, dinosaurs, human body etc but he is wanting to start reading chapter books.

Are there any you can recommend which will be suitable for a sensitive 4 year old but also be at a challenging level?
At the moment his school books aren't challenging him at all.

TIA

OP posts:
Teladi · 15/05/2015 13:30

I was like your DS and my mum just gave me free rein at the library. I don't remember reading anything that was scary or confusing for me until I was much older and finally got access to the adult section and then read a lot of books with sexy bits Grin

AtomicDog · 15/05/2015 13:38

Allan Ahlberg
The Claude books by Alex Smith
The Jolly Rogers series by Johnny Dudddle
The Dixie O'Day series by Shirley hughes and her DD Claire Vuillamy
Horrid Henry ( I know they have a Bad rep, however, in fact when Henry is being naughty he gets his come-uppance, when he's good, he triumphs)
Secret Seven of course.

OneMagnumisneverenough · 15/05/2015 13:49

Trying to cast my mind back now.... Dinking Dings and the frightening things books were a hit I think. It is hard to get appropriate books.

I remember DS2 going through a Reading comprehension assessment at just turned 6 that ws intended for children about 9/10. The teacher just had to download the alloacted assessmnet for that day and had to reject the first one as it was all about vandalism and he wouldn't really have enough of an understanding of the issues to be able to complete the comprehension test. She got tipped the wink about the next one coming up and said to us it was about eskimos so could we just do a few minutes with him about who eskimos were etc. I said to him, what do you know about Eskimos and he replied "i think you mean Inuits don't you?"

NoParking · 15/05/2015 18:19

I've had to go back to the classics for dd1. She relishes longer books, more complex structure, wider vocabulary etc but will have nightmares about anything remotely scary. At 6yo she's enjoying Swallows and Amazons, The Secret Garden, The Railway Children and so on. Plus some more modern chapter books from school that she whizzes through in 40 minutes.

OneMagnumisneverenough · 15/05/2015 19:08

Mine hated the classics unfortunately, they hard a hard time relating to the very middle class English-ness of a lot of the books which is understandable as Scottish working class children :) - i just think they found it very difficult to relate to and enjoy. DS1s friend was barrelling his way through the Famous 5 and Secret 7 and Just William etc (Middle Class English Parents :) ) but he was much happier with Harry Potter and The Hobbit.

Another thought for the OP - what about the How to Train your Dragon Books?

LimpidPools · 15/05/2015 19:12

Dick King Smith's books are lovely too.

QuiteQuietly · 15/05/2015 21:18

[[http://www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType.aspx]] offers searching by both age suitability (interest level) and reading difficulty. To find lexile level, search for a book you already know is an appropriate standard. I found it very useful when I had an early reader.

More specifically, the Jack Stalwart series went down very well with DS in reception.

QuiteQuietly · 15/05/2015 21:19

Epic link fail.

www.arbookfind.co.uk/UserType.aspx

Ferguson · 15/05/2015 23:28

YES to Swallows and Amazons (though he may need some help) then all the other Arthur Ransomes. They are also good for social history, and reflect life in the 1930s.

AtomicDog · 15/05/2015 23:49

Gen up on sailing before starting Swallows and Amazons- DD had no clue what was going on for first three chapters or so!

var123 · 16/05/2015 13:13

Swallows and Amazons for a 4 year old???! If he can read, and enjoy, those books at such a young age, then that is seriously impressive!

I just lifted one off the book shelf. Its 400 pages long with a typeface that's about 1.5x the normal adult novel size and there are only a couple of pencil drawings in the whole book. Wow! I thought my children were good readers but they could not have done anything more than decode a book like that before they were 7.

BeaufortBelle · 16/05/2015 13:19

Some of the morpurgos, there was a series of mini Greek myths, lots of fact books, lots that has spread been suggested and odfly enough quite a lot of poetry, simple verse, and the spiderwick chronicles were a big hit.

wfrances · 16/05/2015 13:37

take him to the town library.
i was an advance reader and went through the school books just as a matter of course.
my parents took me to the library fortnightly and i just grabbed anything that took my fancy, books about france, writing arabic ,volcanos , birds of prey as well as fiction , had a carrier bag full every time.

BrianButterfield · 16/05/2015 19:15

I have to say DS still very much enjoys picture books. There are plenty out there that are not for toddlers - Anthony Browne, for example, writes thought-provoking ones (with no menace). We got 'Through the Magic Mirror' from the library, which is based on surrealist art, and DS found it very funny and it kicked off a lot of games about strange worlds etc. Although he can read well he is certainly put off by dense type! And pictures can be a real talking point and route into exploring all sorts of things.

Miele72 · 16/05/2015 19:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Shosha1 · 16/05/2015 19:28

Dinosaurs Diary by Julia Donaldson is a chapter book.

My 5 year old loves it

Oh and her Giant and the Jones's

LotusLight · 17/05/2015 06:57

We just let ours read anything. Only one was an early reader - when she was nearly 4 at the entrance test for her sister's school (Haberdashers) she could read anything they found for her. Her older sister took 2 years longer to read actually and both are now London business lawyers with almost identical qualifications so I don't think it necessarily follows that early reading makes a huge difference later although they are likely to be fairly bright if they can read early. In our case our early reader one was just a more sit around than the rush around hyper of her older sibling. Although even that totally changed in that in the sixth form she won the school sports prize and until last year played a sport of England.

In terms of books we certainly took them regularly to the library and they could read what they liked (same with my parents and me). I read masses of non fiction actually as a child and Enid Blyton too and just loads of things.

We read to all 5 children every night until they would not let us any more too at bed time so I do recommend that so they have not just school books but the book you are reading to them.

MythicalKings · 17/05/2015 07:01

I took them to the library once a week and let them chose. I didn't always like their choices but any reading is good reading.

MadAboutMathsMum · 17/05/2015 13:17

I think it depends on what you mean by 'challenging'. Also it depends slightly what the reading test was for - just in terms of decoding or in terms of comprehension. DS3 (yr1) has a 'reading age' of about 11 but he is only 'reading' at a level 3 so I guess about 8 ish. When he is reading at home we read his school books to be challenging - they aren't challenging in terms of decoding, they are challenging in terms of the questions and understanding that I challenge him on. Can he infer information from the text that hasn't been written explicitly for example. Can he tell me what the more obscure words mean that he has just read as if he knew but actually was new vocabulary.
When he reads his own books he is reading for pleasure not to be challenged - how often do we settle down with a good book to have to struggle through new vocabulary for example. However, on that vein he enjoys things like Monster and Chips and the London Zoo series. They aren't really 'challenging' in that I assume they have been written for a parent to read to 5 or 6 year olds but he loves reading them.

Wailywailywaily · 19/05/2015 19:13

If I let DS choose his own book in the library he would always choose the same one, exactly the same book he chose when he was 12 months old (he checks up on it every time we go but I have banned it from coming home bad parent)

The first chapter books DS read were the Frog and Toad books when he was nearly 4. We all love them.

He is 5 now and still loves to go back to picture books like Lauren Child's Clarice Bean books when he is tucked into bed at night and reading to himself. But if I am reading to him he loves things like Mr Gum.

In school he is reading Code books about Micro world, these are really good fun for a boy.

chocolateyay · 19/05/2015 19:22

I can only think of the likes of Winnie the pooh or Blyton books. That's what I was reading at that age.

var123 · 19/05/2015 20:48

Wailywailywaily - if my son had a special book like that, i'd buy him a copy. Its so sweet!

slippermaiden · 19/05/2015 20:55

Enid blytons Magic faraway tree stories, flat Stanley, my daughter is in year 2 and is a year ahead in reading, can't believe your 4 year old is reading the same level, that's astonishing!

Wailywailywaily · 19/05/2015 22:29

var, this is the book. Not very high brow I'm afraid Grin.
one day I will make him the happiest kid in town and buy it for him!

Those whose children read early
Wailywailywaily · 19/05/2015 22:31

I should introduce him to Eats Shoots and Leaves but I'm not sure I want to encourage his obsession Blush

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