Help with some books for DS1 aged 4 to read to himself

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

DS1 is in Reception, and reading is going well. They use mostly ORT in school, but there are some more phonic based books mixed into the reading scheme and he is doing well with his sounds, can blend digraphs when they arise in words, and is reading green book band without much problem.

He has been reading some of the story/picture books that we have at home, but what else could we get for him? He enjoys Roald Dahl and Flat Stanley, but isn't able to read the full versions for himself as yet.

have a look on this link, it shows some levelled non scheme books by coloured band.

content.yudu.com/Library/A22edt/BadgerBandedReadingB/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffree.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F750022%2FBadger--Banded--Reading-Boxes

if he is confident with green, try him with some of the ones they have listed green and then decide whether to go up to orange or down to blue, hard to tell with 'real' books how easily they map across as it depends so much on how a child reads.

Have a look at the Usborne First Reader and Young Reader books. They are great, starting with very little text and going into easy chapter books while still lots of pictures.

If you have a decent library nearby raid them. I found that DD would read these books only for a short period and then moved on and buying is too expensive. Charity shops are also good.

Otherwise DD just reads her old toddler books to herself now. Winnie the Witch is a fairly easy one.

Try the library. You can just try things and see what takes. It's also a great place to find things that wouldn't have been on your radar before.

My kids are into Monster and Frog books that we found in the library www.amazon.co.uk/The-Magic-Show-Monster-Frog/dp/1843622343/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

According to this site they are orange. I have linked you to the green books www.itsfuntoread.co.uk/SearchResults.aspx?st=2&bid=5 (or at least I hope I have), but you can just step off the bookband thing and see what he likes and can manage

Winnie the Witch is book band Purple just as a guide. The usborne ones are great, I love the pictures they have and my 2 have liked them plus most libraries have them.

good green ones are Jez Alborough 'Where's my teddy?', Not Now Bernard by David McKee, My Mum and Dad make me Laugh by Nick Sharratt, I'm Not Cute by Jonathan Allen, Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose by Julia Donaldson. They should be easy to find in a library.

Then, you can try Horrid Henry easy readers after a while, and then there's no going back . Enjoy!

If he takes to a particular series of books, it's always worth checking places like The Book People for cheap sets of the books.

We used to get the Start Reading books from the library. They are colour banded which makes choosing roughly right level very easy and my DD loved them. I think they go up to Gold level but can't remember precisely.

DD (reception) reads Horrid Henry, Flat Stanley, Frog and Toad (again and again), Topsy and Tim (ditto), Mercy Watson, and the early reader books (as others have mentioned).

She also likes Dick King Smith (Poppet, connie and Rollo), Michael Morpurgo (Conker, Snakes and Ladders).

Happy families books are good too (I think purple level - Mr Creep the Crook etc).

There are Horrid Henry early readers as well, if regular HH is too hard.

My 4 year old dgs is in nursery and can read Ant and Bee and one or two of ORT pink.Basically he can blend cvc words and make a stab at building reguar phonic words.He likes Ant and Bee books because he and his brother read them together.

Regular HH books are level 3 books so best to start with the easier reader ones (like the Flat Stanley ones).

Thanks everyone :)

We have been getting books from the library, but I wanted something that was a bit more story and a bit less contrived because it has the right words in it.

I've ordered a set of HH Early Readers for him, and that itsfuntoread website looks brilliant freetrait, thank you.

simpson what is level 3? And are there Flat Stanley Early Readers? He would absolutely love those!

the early reader books are great, my daughter has really enjoyed them. They may be a bit hard for him at the moment though if he is on green books but worth trying. I think most early readers are classed as about book band 9/10 whereas regular horrid henry would be book band 11.

Corgi first readers are also good - Happy Mouseday by Dick King Smith etc (sainsburys have them at £3 each) - again book band 10ish.

Peri - HH are stage 12 I think...

Check out the green, yellow and blue bananas books (the library might have them). DD has got an easy Flat Stanley book (green bananas which is around stage 6/7).

Another vote for Happy Mouseday

oh are they 12. I was guessing I must admit. our school seem to have rainbow fairies, some dick king-smith and others like that at 11 and I thought Horrid Henry seemed relatively easy language so just lumped them together. I think once they are at 9/10ish then it comes down to interest, font size and pictures whether they can read things or not doesn't it rather than the language so much.

HH are IMO deceptively tough with things like inference but relatively easy to read iyswim.

DD can cope with HH fine to read but what not "get" what I would expect her 7 yr old brother to get.

DS's teacher has them levelled at a 3b NC wise (which is about stage 12 I think..)

For example DS read a sentence from HH last night...

Dad glowed. "what a school report Peter!"

From that sentence the child can infer that dad is proud and if at the level of that book will be able to point to the word "glowed" to say that's how they infer dad is proud (glowed with pride).

Also then to say is Peter's school report good/bad (as it doesn't say it in the sentence iyswim...

Pretty much every sentence in HH is like this...