4 yr old ds- how to engage with reading?

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ds is 4.7 but I'm struggling with getting him to look at his reading books (we never had this problem with dd).
The funny thing is that he absolutely loves books and being read to, has done all his life. He loves visiting the library too and we have millions of books around the house.
However, he says that the 'school books are rubbish because they don't tell me anything I want to know'.
Whenever we get them out he will grudgingly look at them and then usually will remember the words from reading with TA at school. They have asked us to get him to point at the words but he just waves his hand in the general direction of them!
I know that it would be good for him to look at the book several times over the course of a week (books are changed weekly) but if we get it out for a second time he groans 'not that book AGAIN!'
I don't want to press him for fear of putting him off but if we don't do any reading he's not going to make much progress...
We have tried early reading books from the book chest and some of them have been quite boy orientated but he actually wants to read the books that dd has but he's def not ready for gold level yet!
Can anyone recommend any ways to get around this?

Chill a bit - he is very young, and being read to is as good as trying to read himself.

Get him this book if he is mechanically minded? My ds has poured over it for years now, looking at the diagrams at first and then trying to read some of the captions.

He is still not very interested in reading for its own sake - he is 10 now.

Chill. The best way to put him off reading is to pressure him. Remember, he is not his sister, he is a completely different individual, who will develop at his own pace, with his own interests and abilities. It is very difficult not to compare, I know!

Encourage his enthusiasm for the books he likes, in the way he likes. My dc have always been interested in books way too advanced for them. As long as the content is suitable, that is fine. They don't need to read the books for themselves - that's what pictures and parents are for.

Usborne and Dorling Kindersley do fabulous, informative, books, with lots of illustrations and captions and paragraphs of different sizes and complexities. All my dc, with their varying reading abilities and interests, have enjoyed them hugely.

just keep reading to him and remember most children don't read at 4.

Does he like Dr Zeus? He's good for early reading. you can read one page and get them to read the other, or the odd word.

Definitely don't get stressed about it. 4.7 is still very young to be reading, plenty of children don't get into it until they are 5 or 6. Most of the ones who are later to start catch up very quickly.

Keep reading him lots of stories and making books look like fun. He will read when he is good and ready.

meltedmarsbars he would love the how things work book, he often spends time looking at factual books on his own. He does tend to enjoy ones that are aimed at older age groups (often borrows encyclopedias from grandad!)
We are at the stage now though where we can't buy anymore books as the house is bursting at the seams with them so the library is a favourite haunt!
The thing is that he wants to know what the books say and he gets frustrated that adults can't spend all day reading them to him (his ideal world). I do love reading to him (and dd) but there are other things that have to be done (work, cooking, cleaning, washing, etc etc). So one of the reasons I want him to get on and read by himself is purely selfish!

I'd recommend the non-fiction read write inc books www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Phonics-Non-Fiction/dp/0198469012/ref=sr_1_42?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289819349&sr=1-42
They are phonics based so linked to the way in which most schools are teaching reading and this will increase the chances that your dc will be able to read them by himself. They also start with really easy texts that could be suitable for a 4 yo. I know that you said you didn't want to buy more books but these are small - so take up less space and relatively inexpensive. Sometimes you can find the black and white sets on ebay or amazon which are even cheaper ( and dc could maybe colour some of the pictures). Why not get some and try school book once per week ( don't worry about doing it more than this if he is unwilling) plus a read write inc book for the rest of the week?

This is similar to the situation in which I just stopped making dd do it, and suddenly she decided she wanted to read Pippi Longstocking and things turned around completely.
I told her she didn't have to do it any more, and told the teacher we were stopping because it was putting her off, but I would keep reading to her.
Then when I read her Pippi it turned out to be the thing that grabbed her and she wanted more so she started trying to figure it out for herself. Pippi is WAY too hard for her level but it doesn't actually matter because she can still do the majority of the words and I do the difficult ones. So the rule now is that I will read her a bit of what she wants at bedtime and if she wants any more I will help her read it, and I will never force her to do reading. She now actually has decided she quite likes the school reading books, I think because her attitude to reading has changed. I have also spent a lot of time trying to find her things she will like that are more her level but it probably hasn't been worth the effort because she seems to get more out of reading something too hard for her that she is super-motivated to read than something that looks more suitable but doesn't grab her as much.
I would just keep reading to him; anyway they do loads in school, he will make progress with a mixture of school lessons + being read to + looking at books on his own: doing the school reading books is not the magic ingredient IMO. He will probably start to figure out words in the encyclopaedias etc soon if he's not already; motivation is everything.

Can you say things like "Won't it be nice by next year when you can read these books to yourself?" So he gets the idea that this will happen. You don't have to read constantly to him just cos he can't read yet, just enough to whet the appetite. I used to read a page or two and leave it at that.

Meanwhile he can look at fact books with lots of pictures and consider the text if/when he's ready.

DS never read a school book in reception, they changed them every 3 weeks or so, and by Easter I asked the teacher about his reading and told her that he refuses to read at home. His teacher told me that his reading is good and that he reads the books well in school.

DS loved ORT (not the scheme they read at school) so we got them from the library, did school reading competition, summer reading competition, we still do reading sweets and lots of praise.

Now in Y1 he reads school books well in school and joins in discussions. At home he reads Harry and the Dinosaurs and other simple books he knows and loves. At first his Y1 teacher insisted that he reads school books at home but I regret trying to make him. In his reading log I just write what he read at home - his teacher seems to be OK with that now since he is reading.

I try to get him into a reading routine every day but we are still struggling with that.

meltedmarsbars - this book could be of interest mo my DS.

Its me again - when I read to DS he sometimes asks 'where are we' and I casually move my finger along the words as I read, especially with books in larger print. This way he can try to read along if he wants to without pressure.

A delightful video of a 4 year old learning to read with Piper Books BRI readers.
Sorry, I know I go on about it, but these are my favourite books for teaching 4 year olds to read.

We guessed, Malaleuca .

Fennel: "Can you say things like "Won't it be nice by next year when you can read these books to yourself?"

Thanks for the tip, I chatted tonight with him saying that if he practiced with his reading he will one day be able to read for himself and not have to wait for adults to do it for him, also told him he can find out loads about vikings and one day he could read 'Beowulf' all by himself (we haven't read it to him yet, but he's seen some pictures from it and it's whet his appetite)

This seems to have done the trick- tonight we sat down with a pink level book about ducks and he concentrated, sounded out the letters, blended the sounds and read the words- Hooray!

I'm glad to hear it (veteran of 3 4 year olds here).

You can probably find picture versions of Beowulf and similar.