Books for reading at home

[wobblypig]

I am a bit stuck on what to offer DS, 5 in reception, to read at home. He gets 3 books a week ( orange/turquoise band ) at moment but reads them same night and then it seems a bit boring to keep re-reading them.

I am doing other things with the books like drawing attention to the punctuation and using different voices for the different chracetrs. Wonder if we should do something else? From the library he is mainly interested in reference books about volcanoes ; dinosaurs etc but is reticent to attempt reading the text .
Any suggestions to keep up the momentum and get him interested in something that isn't Biff and Chip?

DD is about the same level and we just read her school books once. She gets an 80 page (ish) chapter book plus a non-fiction book to read at home. Other than that, she gets free rein at the library and we tend to read whatever she's picked out.

In terms of ideas though, how about Horrid Henry, Flat Stanley, Beast Quest (nb not looked at Beast Quest but I think it's about the boy equivalent to the Rainbow Magic books that DD is reading).

My ds (age 4.6yo) prefers reference books too. He's green band, which I've no idea where that is in relation to your ds.

The school being really good about finding him books he enjoys, both reference and fiction. Shows what being awkward and refusing to read if they're boring does.

He likes books about various aeroplanes, and when he has a book he is interested in it's amazing how quickly he learns to read the technical language. Knowing "sonic boom" and "merlin engine" and "mach" doesn't help much with Biff and Chip.

The way he does it, is choose a book that has the facts in lots of little sections round a picture. The first time I'll read it with him, he'll then usually take it away and reappear asking for the words he can't work out (and explanations) after that he's usually fairly good on it.

There's a fairly good usborne series with both dinosaurs and volcanoes in. I haven't got them to hand, but they're hard backed and sort of a wide A5 size if yuo understand me. He got the dinosaur one for Christmas and managed a good proportion (other than the names he didn't already know).

I tended to, when he first was interested in that sort of book, read a bit to him, then choose a section which I knew he knew a lot of the words and get him to read that section. Then read another bit to him. After a short while he wanted to read it on his own, and that was that.

Usborne beginners are really good, the non fiction seems to really appeal to boys. Though my son loved reading the happy families books at this stage by Alan Ahlberg.

Happy Families books are fab my DS loved them

Our local library had loads of them.

Thanks - will look up the happy families and the usbourne . I think horrid Henry is a bit to hard he is a quick but not advanced reader - i.e. gets through them quicklyl and wants to move on but average for his reception class.

Thanks again

Mr Men and Little Miss Books are also good.

We have those but DS is really funny about reading stuff that we have read for him before he could read. Really weird

Take him to the library and get him to pick out something he likes the look of?

There are some good DK readers that cover topics such as Star Wars and Transformers which might interest? DD is at a similar reading level and she is reading fairy tales constantly at the moment (which makes for interesting conversations about how different books tell the stories differently).

Redskyatnight - that is the sticking point. He loves the library , we are there all the time but he doesn't select books that he wishes to read only those he wants look at or have read to him about tsunami; volcanoes or dinosaurs. Finding easy readers about these topics has been difficult. Not really into stuff like transformers .
Most his class at a similar level ( apart from a few clearly advanced kids ) but other parents seem a little reticent to talk about what they read at home.

Apple Tree Farm ones form Usborne (or a bit young for him?) the illustrations are lovely.
Benedict Blathywaite (sic) Little Red Train series?
Harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs series?
Frog and Toad series - American series..you need a very dry sense of humour but we just loved them in our house.
Some of the simpler Dr. Seuss?

Keep him away from Horrid Henry for as long as possible.....

If he likes fact books I would recommend the Dorsling Kindersley (spelling??) DK readers (lots on amazon), I think Level 2 is 'starting to read alone' and by level 4 there is quite a lot of text per page.

Anything useful here?

Thanks Carrotsandcelery just the kind of thing we wanted I think ( except the one about Hiroshima )

DD's orange band non-fiction that she got home today might appeal to him, it's called "Is the Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?" It starts off with the blue whale, then goes through a series of steps with Mount Everest, Earth, the sun, a supergiant star, the galaxy, the universe. Very nicely done. And there appear to be quite a few books in that series, too.

I hadn't noticed the Hiroshima one Maybe a bit of a leap there

It is worth asking at the library to see if they can get the book in rather than buying it as he will progress beyond it very quickly.

From what you have described most definitely the Usborne Beginners series. It is a non-fiction range of about 45 books for R and KS1 covering all sorts of great topics including Volcanos and Dinosaurs. Also includes history topics - castles, armour, space, science, nature, animals etc. The books are mostly priced at 4-99, some are 3-99 still. Many have fantastic photos; others have illustrations.

The series is split into Level 1 and 2 and the idea is for children to start to be able to read the text themselves. After Beginners comes Discovery and Beginners plus.

I sell bucketloads of this series. It is cracking!

Thanks for excellent suggestions; his cousin gave us a usbourne book of caterpillars and butterfiles tday and he has gone to bed with it telling me he wants to read it as sson as he wakes up. Will look up the rest .