Book banding

[mrsshears]

A while ago i'm sure i saw on here a link someone had posted to a site that lists 'normal' i.e not reading scheme childrens books that have been banded,does anyone remember this? or know what this site is called?
The reason i ask is because i want to buy dd(5) some books to read at home,where we struggle is what she can read herself and what she is interested in are 2 different things,she is on white band at school and not too interested in these books at all,at home she will have a good go at 'the twits' and 'mr stink' but although she loves the story they are just that bit too hard for her to read by herself which ruins her enjoyment a little.
I want to try and bridge the gap a bit and buy her some books that hold her interest but also that she can manage without too much of a problem and i thought that site,if i can find it,may give us some ideas.
Thanks

I had exactly the same issue with DS1 last year when he was in YR.

The advice I was given was to get him to read his school books when he had to, let him read whatever he wants at home as well (whatever the level). The most important thing I was told was to continue to read to him that and not worry about challenging him to read them himself always.

He loved Roald Dahl too so we starting reading them to him then when he was ready we got him to read some himself, them read some to him.

It is very hard to find books that bridge the gap to be honest an I was glad once we got past that stage as it used to stress me out, my DS read some of the books we used to read to him ie The Gruffalo etc and he could read those easily but enjoyed the stories also so maybe you could try that.

Thanks for your reply lou
Maybe we will just continue as we are then until we get passed this stage.
She has made alot of progress recently so hopefully we are at the tail end,very frustrating though as you say.

Hi,
My DD is on the same stage and loves the Rainbow fairy books. She finds them quite easy though and they are VERY repetitive. However, she really enjoys reading them and gets through one a night.

Hi tigger thanks for your reply
we have the rainbow fairy series but they don't do it for dd

DS liked the seriously silly story books: Little red riding wolf, Goldishocks & the 3 scares are the only two I can remember

He has also got very into Enid Blyton lately (esp The secret 7)

I bought the ORT Times chronicles (book people I think...) which are stage 10 / 11.

He also likes the Treetops ones (stage 12-14 IIRC)

Hi simpson >> waves

My DD is a level behind but she's enjoying reading her old books that we read to her when she was younger. I think she likes the fact that they are easier, she already knows the story so she can read them in her head and just enjoy the book rather than it being a challenge.
I also bought some of the ballerina series and the rainbow series but she's not quite ready for those. Her current favourite at bedtime is a fact book on the body by osborne.

Also the Happy Family books are brilliant Mr Biff the Boxer, Josie the Jockey etc.

Even if your DD finds the actual reading side of these too easy, the stories are great

It's funny you should mention the happy families books as she found some of these in the doctors surgery recently and was reading them!
I think the one she liked was about a builder??

DS liked the one about the robber....

Mr creep the crook I think it was....

Our local library had all of them in stock, I think there are 20 altogether.

They sell a pack of them all on the book people website, but I can't get on it at the moment

here

animal crackers, easier than happy families.

walker stories, three short chapters which are individual stories but linked.

ricky rockets.

check out the usborne readers. they have some at white band and above. here

whathaveiforgottentoday - my daughter loves the exact same book I bet! In fact there are two - the flap flap body book and see inside your body. She wants to be a doctor atm :)

I hunk there us a bug difference between the twist and Mr stink? My dc us on white, read twist a few levels ago, and now reads things like Mr stink. But is due to be reassessed, so apologies if I am wrong.

Try non fiction books on a subject she is interested in?

simpson, book people have sold out... I have their entire stock stashed in the wardrobe/cupboard/top of bookshelf at home and my bank balance is looking decidedly sick.

mr majeika are proper chapter books but short. dick king smith, sophie stories,

there are over a hundred fairy books...

Diary of a killer cat- anne fine

SIlver street farm books, they are in the car so can not identify the author.

Sorry. Twits, not twist.

Oh yes "Diary of a killer cat" DS loved that one

And the follow up one although I forget its name

Daisy of the 'Eat your Peas' series of picture books is the star of some readers for this ae group, which are really amusing. Also Winnie the Witch has a great reade serie. The good thing about these are they take characters the children are familiar with a reading stage further.

Mr. Gum
Ottoline series
Be back with more suggestions later...

DD went through exactly this phase, and we found our library very good for this kind of 'bridging' book, ones with short chapters but lots of illustrations and not too many words on the page. I'm glad we didn't buy them as it was a short phase before she moved on to Mr Majeka etc.

She particularly liked a series called 'I am Reading', which is some kind of scheme book, but v good. Also there are some Francesca Simon Early Readers (some Horrid Henry, some not) which do exactly the same job.

The very first chapter books DD read were 'My Naughty Little Sister'; there's one story in each chapter, so I think they are easier to deal with. Our version had very big print too, which helped.