transitioning to chapter books at bedtime

[Supergran58]

I got bored with all our picture books (mainly Julia) that I've read a million times, so I found a copy of James and the Giant Peach and started reading it to grandson (I parent him). He's 4 and a bit - end of July birthday but in reception. He seems to like it but I'm not sure whether he's too young to fully appreciate a chapter book. When did you transition to chapter books and what did you start with?

I think it's so child dependent, but between 4 and 6 is about right. Mine have all been 6 really, a little at 5. However, what jumps out at me from your post is that you say 'Mostly Julia'. Over the last 15 years or so whenever I see posts online of people asking for book suggestions it's been 90% of people recommending Julia bloody Donaldson! Yes she has produced some great books but I'd go mad reading mostly them. I read one about once a month or less. We have so many books that I update a lot.

Even if a child is enjoying a chapter book, it doesn't mean they can't still enjoy picture books for many more years too! There is so much to be gained from both. They need never grow out of picture books in fact.

Have a look at Flying Eye books, a lot of my favourites are published by them. Tate Publishing also.

At 4, I see read both definitely. It sounds like your picture book selection needs a big refresher.

I missed your what question, I started all mine with Enid Blyton the Enchanted Wood, Magic Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair. Then Roald Dahl. Esio Trot, Giraffe the Pelly and Me and George's Marvelous medicine are the shorter ones.

Maybe try the Claude books by Alex Smith. They are really funny, and my sons (3 and 5) both love them. They are longer than picture books but not as long as a proper chapter book. I generally split them in half and read over 2 evening.

I used to read Dickens to my eldest son when he was 2 because he had trouble sleeping. I found that the better the writing, the easier he found it to fall asleep. I used good literature to soothe him to sleep.

As long as you are both happy you can read anything you like. My younger child started reading the picture books I had previously read to him aloud at bed time at about your Grandson's age, so that is another option.

Carry on if you're both enjoying it; don't worry about him not understanding/appreciating all of it! He can always re-read it when he's older.

I've just started to do the same - DD2 is just 5 and we've started with Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox. We've got a lovely edition with colour illustrations so it's a really nice bridge between picture books and the idea of developing a story over several evenings. Plus the chapters are very short, so you can either read one or more depending on how you and they are feeling.

As a pp said, then there are the other shorter Roald Dahls - mine all loved The Twits at that age.

Dd is 5 (just) and likes a mixture of chapter and shorter books. She likes roald dahl and the worst witch series

Dependent on child is fine.

If they like listening for that long but forget what has happened between chapters or cant keep waiting for the end of the story then try books of short stories. That’s what mine preferred.

If you go into a bookshop like Waterstones or an independent with a good children's section (or a library) you can find a massive range of short chapter books aimed at this age rage. There's some brilliant new authors as well as old ones. There is also quite a few prolific but repeatitive authors with series like the Rainbow Fairies which children seem to love. My DDs love
Rainbow Fairies
Zoe's Rescue Zoo
Isadora Moon
Claude
Adventures of Mr Penguin
Famous Five
Hotel Flamingo
Dave Pigeon
Ballerina books (Darcey Bussell, can't remember proper name)
Bear Grylls adventures

Amongst others.

With ds, who is the only one I have continued reading to, I started at 4yo.
I told him he didn't need to listen, but he needed to be quiet and let me read some of my favourite stories.
I started with the Little House books.

Within the first couple of days he was absolutely into the books, and begging me to continue. I'm still reading to him, aged 12yo. He remembers the plots from the books I read back then, so he did take it in.
At first we'd chat about the previous chapter, now we only do if there's questions.

The girls didn't want me to read to them as soon as they could manage Rainbow Magic books.

DS is 4 and a half. I've started reading a chapter of a book while he's in the bath and enjoys the story, talks about it and looks forward to the next bit. He doesn't want to swap his three picture books for one chapter of another book though. We tried a couple of times with different books and he's not been interested.

We started with the faraway tree too. Before reception, dd was only just 4. Also enjoyed the worst witch fairly early.

We started with the Faraway Tree books at 4. Then moved on to the Wishing Chair. We tried the Island of Adventure series but she found them a bit dull. At 5 she loves the Worst Witch series.

At this age I would go and get some more picture books from the library to be honest. There are so many options it is a shame to keep reading the same handful. No wonder youAre bored. While they are learning to read themselves they still get a huge amount from illustrations. And many have more words than these too.

Because I’ve got quite a big age gap and they like to do bedtime together, we do a picture book and then a chapter from a longer book. My 3 year old will happily listen to a chapter of Roald Dahl, enid Blyton or Jonny Duddle. Her favourite though is the My Naughty Little Sister series. And they have the occasional picture too.

Around that age we moved to chapter books.

We did my father's dragon, the faraway tree, the simpler Roald Dahl (Eg twits and George's marvelous medicine). Horrid Henry/Dirty Bertie (if you can bare them!), Holly Webb, dragon masters series.

DSS went onto chapter books in reception. He instigated it with us asking for the longer books (I was the same as you getting very bored of the same short picture books) we also started with the shorter roald Dahl then progressed onto stuff like Harry Potter and the longer roald Dahl books.
If you DGS isnt saying hes bored or doesnt like it I would preserve with it. Some stuff might go over his head but he will get general gist.
In his school the reception teacher had started reading fantastic mr fox to them at story time so was getting used to the concept.