Can anyone recommend some reading books for my 6 year old?

[ChalkyC]

I have a year 2 6 year old boy. He's all of a sudden having a bit of a reading spurt having struggled up until now. He's on stage 7 ORT (I know most mn children are free readers by this stage, but not here!!) and although he is reading biff and chip books confidently I am struggling to find him 'home' reading books. He panics and just says he can't read them - I bought some of the early reader horrid Henry's as he likes them read to him but he just cries when I ask if he wants to read them to me!

So - any recommendations of good confidence boosting reading books that aren't part of a specific reading scheme but are interesting story books? I've always loved reading, he loves being read to (currently reading stig of the dump together) and I'd love him to want to read independently.

In our library they have a young readers section... He might find something in that section he likes..

My Ds liked the star wars early readers.

Another thing I found with my Ds is he enjoyed reading stories I had read to him when he was younger. It may just give hima confidence boost it sounds like he needs.

Last idea.. Reading a page each..I know my Ds can get overwhelmed by the size of a book

My DS wasn't a free reader at 6 - fast forward a year and he's confidently reading chapter books. Something just clicked with him earlier this year.

I would say keep reading with him, maybe encourage him to take turns reading a page. Over the last year DS has really liked the Claude series of books, flat Stanley, the red/green/blue banana series of early reader books and some abridged classic books like Peter Pan etc. that usbourne do.

DK readers, ladybird read it yourself, Kingfisher readers, Usborne beginners. I recently looked them up on Amazon to get ds for Christmas. He is exceeding in literacy and maths and is on stage 7, reads his own choice of book independently to himself every night at bedtime. This is not a boast, I'm shocked he's doing so well, as dh and I are actually a bit thick! Your ds is doing really well.

Year two is such a fabulous year to teach. I'd suggest going to the library and inviting your son to pick up whatever he fancied. Picture books can be magical. Familiar stories are helpful. Comics are great.

Our town's library have young reader section as well. My ds read most of the books available there, except for fairy kind of books.

Also we visited charity shops regularly, and bought loads of books.

I was primary TA / helper for over twenty years, and used various strategies to encourage and support reading.

In particular, DS need not be 'afraid' of tackling harder books if they are approached in a suitable way, as explained below:

?When reading harder books with a child, get him to point to words as he goes along. If he knows the word, or can sound it out, he can say it. If he doesn't know the word, he can hover his finger over it, and YOU say the word for him. Don't stop to analyse or discuss the word at this stage, but try and keep the 'flow' of reading going. Review difficulties at the end, if you wish to.

This way, he has the satisfaction of reading more difficult books, without the fear of getting 'stuck' on words.

My mother in law bought my son a subscription to Beano this year (same age) and he loves reading that himself. Agree with the DK ones - those ranges often use characters he'd like and be familiar with. My son also enjoyed the Oxford "Project X Alien Adventures" book series and has read and re-read them he loves them so much!

It's tricky to know if I'm too far out and whether these suggestions will be too easy; my DS is officially ORT 5 I think (he's Y1) but he reads harder books that we get from the library. I don't mean to sound wanky when I say this; I think the ORT5 'read at home' books are easy going for him but I haven't seen level 7 so I don't really know how much a step up they are, and obviously he hasn't gone up, so he may be struggling with comprehension or some other aspect than the words.

Anyway - he also can be awed by a big page of words and I would say these books have struck a good balance for him (quite full pages but short chapters/ stories):

Dick King Smith 'My Animal Friends'
Michael Morpurgo's Aesop's Fables
Terry Deary 'The Bike Escape' (this is borderline - comprehension was tougher for him and he also took time to get into it; it would probably be a good match for your DS as he's older and more advanced a reader).

It helped my DS to memorise high frequency words - so he was confident with these, then we read together a sentence each until we moved onto a paragraph each, then a page etc. This will help too in class if he is in guided reading groups.

We read seasonal stuff - so fact books about hedgehogs, owls, bats - what ever he shows interest in. We went to discover dogs today and DS is reading all about different breeds this week at his request. DS is also a minecraft fan (screen time is limited) but he loves the books too.

Also charity shops often have Ladybird classics (short picture book versions) that are quite wordy but not so starkly so because of the pics.

Ferguson that's a great tip! DS will often read ahead to himself and if he spots a tricky word coming up he procrastinates like anything! I usually forestall him and tell him tricky words before he starts to read.

Thanks some great suggestions. Does anyone use a kindle for their children? DS loves screens and it might be an incentive! I don't have one - I don't know if they do picture books?

Take him to the library- nothing beats the joy of picking your own and the librarian would help. I would keep to books and not the kindle.

You can get loads of kids books on Kindle but I agree to stay away from it.

DS loves to read comics, would that be a good idea? He also liked Dr. Seuss, green eggs and ham is a really nice easy one to start, and there are some marvel or DC easy readers on The Book People if he's into superheroes.

One thing which worked really well for DS though when he lacked confidence was to read things with him - I read one page, you read one page etc. Or he reads 2 sentences and I finish the page. Annuals should be out nowish and have a good mix of short stories, comics and activities and are themed, so whatever he likes - angry birds or football or star wars - you can find something.

Have a look for the Ali Sparkes 'Switched' series - fab stories and easy sized chapters. Think I enjoyed them more than DS(6)!

I suggest you look at the free ebooks on www.oxfordowl.co.uk. It has 250 free ebooks of varying standards. My daughter uses an Ipad to read them, but I am sure you could just as easily use an andriod tablet.

My daughter has a basic kindle and loves it. She likes the horrid henry early readers as well, but they are quite expensive to buy lots of on kindle. The basic kindle doesn't do games and is only black and white.
I don't understand other posters objections to a kindle. I think you would need a kindle fire or a tablet for picture books.

I actually is amazed at how quickly children in Britain learn to read. I certainly can't read much when I was 7. But DS2(7) can read lots of books.

Y2 is a year children make big progress. I think they have grasped the phonics skill by this time, and remembered lots of words, so they can enjoy the reading now. DS2 loved Horid Henry at that time, we also borrowed lots of books from library.

I would suggest , for the hard book, you can read the most, let him do a sentence in between, so you can keep the story going, and keep his interests up.

"I actually is amazed at how quickly children in Britain learn to read. I certainly can't read much when I was 7. But DS2(7) can read lots of books."

There is a huge range of ablity in year 2 because age and maturity makes such a difference. The OP son is doing very respectably.

I agree OP's son is doing very well. Did I expressed a different opinion in my post? If so, I certainly didn't mean it.

Although there is a huge range of ability, I still think children learn to read very quickly overall here. That's why I am amazed.

"Although there is a huge range of ability, I still think children learn to read very quickly overall here. That's why I am amazed."

Synthetic phonics means that children learn to decode text quickly. It doesn't always mean that understanding is there.

Oh I do think he's doing great - he's an April baby so not 7 for a while. He started year one on ORT 2 so he's really picked up - I just want to capture it while the goings good!

It's time as much as anything, right? What with school reading and homework and everything else ..... And tearing him away from the iPad!

Another vote for the DK books, my son especially likes the Star Wars ones.

Tell him that he needs to read an oxford owl book before he plays on the Ipad.

The Book People have some Star Wars readers at the moment..

If there's any people who are interested in improving comprehension,
you should try

www.readtheory.org/

It's American, so have to be careful about spellings (they spell "color", rather than "colour"), so don't recommend to children struggling.

For children trying to go further, It's really good. Start from US Grade1(YR2) to Grade12. You read a passage and answer some questions. Topic varies and very interesting.
MY Ds was really weak on comprehension before, but made a big difference since starting this site.(It's free.)

DS loved Pirate Penguins and the Jeremy Strong Pirate School books - think they're a bit simpler than Horrid Henry? Also some Planet X Alien Adventure books that we got from the book people - if they're still there, they started at level 7 and went up to 11, so could be a good fit for you! DS started on them when he was around level 7 ability but got hooked on the series and insisted on carrying on to the end.