DD1 (8) and the terrible library books she is expected to read - I need a PLAN to discuss with teachers at parents evening next week, long and possibly v boring, sorry.

[TheHonEnid]

I know I witter on endlessly about dd1's reading but still, sorry, here I go again. Its parent's evening next week and dh and I agree we need to go in there with a plan.

Basically dd1 is NOT a strong reader. She did make it through treetops (ort) 11 and 12 but with some difficulty. After level 12 they can choose their own books from the library which are sorted 'appropriately'. Dd1's books have an orange sticker. There is one very short shelf of these - I cannot impress upon you enough the utter crapness of the books - 'Stories for 4 year olds' (mmm not many year 3's wanting to take that one), 'The Gargoyle' ok quite good story but MUCH too hard for dd1 'Little People Big People' by Malachy Doyle with lots of Irish names and slang which just utterly confuses a weak reader (and its a crap book anyway). There are a couple of Usborne (yay!) and a few Ginn 360 (v good for dd1, simple nature stories). dd1 is expected to choose her own, except she doesn't, I go in there with her and choose them for her.

The terrible books mean that our daily reading has become a terrible battle - she hates doing it and I get irritable . She guesses words, ignores fulls tops and commmas, has NO CLUE what she has just read etc etc.

There are so many good books out there for readers like her -the book people do some fantastic sets - she read and enjoyed the Sprinters series and reads the Usborne abridged classics very nicely and with interest.

I am thinking that I might suggest supplying dd1 with her own books and asking if that would be acceptable. The odd thing is that they have boxes of books in the classroom that are much better in content and style - they can borrow these but they don't 'count' towards their reading record.

Tbh, she should still be on some sort of reading scheme, but this would be very hard to implement now as she thinks she is a 'free reader'.

Need a plan that will help dd1 without utterly alienating her teacher.

I find that it does help enormously though if the teacher takes the lead. Ds1 will read something because the teacher has set it, but I wouldn't have a chance of getting him to read the same thing, and he is a "good" reader, so I can only imagine the chore of getting someone to read something if it is hard work for them.

Mention that you have heard that there are some really good ORT books at different levels. There are also loads of Ginn ones too.

Have they whisked her off the reading scheme to free up the timetable a bit or something? No idea how it goes - we haven't reached free reader stage but we are getting ORT stage 15 or so.

The school gives chocolate for reading?!

Can you suggest that you agree a book with the teacher that you and dd both like and call that her reading book? This is what happens at our school once they are through the basic reading schemes. Ds is currently reading "How to Train your Dragon" as his "reading book".

That way she could still get her chocolate and something decent to read too.

seeker that is what I am hoping for

have a collection of 'sprinters' and usborne calssics to take in with me

ladymuck I know I hate it

If the prospect of a chocolate encourages them to read every day then I am all for it - but then I a a notoriously lax mummy who has been known to give her children nutella on toast for breakfast!

Enid

do your school do SchoolLink from thebookpeople

basically you hand out magazines for schoollink, people buy books they get delivered to school and sent out through the child's class to home (you need someone to do the sorting)

but everything they buy the school gets a selection of books (of their choice) .. we've had loads of new books and they have some really good titles

would be an easy way to increase the books in school

Sorry - but I have to say it too Catherine Cookson How truly bizaare.

well they always seem to be buying books and having book fairs

god knows where they all ARE though

they bought loads of fabby usborne books a few years ago

none of them appear to be on library shelves

there is a chance that dd1 has got it wrong about hte books in class not counting as she is notoriously rubbish at understanding this kind of stuff

I know

catherine cookson

will recheck today and confirm

The library books sound very grim. I would offer to suppliment them if I were you (I have done this a lot!).

Primary school libraries seem to be dumping grounds as often as not. I bet the C Cookson's came from school book stall left overs! If you ever have time why don't you offer to go through the library shelves and do a big chuck out? Have gone through two school libraries myself doing this- once just elimated everything that hadn't gone off the shelves in the last ten years. It was a vast improvement- we had room to put more interesting books face out, not to mention space for new ones.

This publisher www.barringtonstoke.co.uk does excellent books for diffident readers- they are really not just for dyslexic children.

oh i saw some oft ghose books on the book people they looked FAB

I'd LOVE to get my hands on that library

Well perhaps you should try!
Even the local charity shops wouldn't take the stuff we threw out, saying they couldn't shift such junk!

what a shame the Barrington Stoke books are almost all aimed at boys

there is NOTHING like this for girls

I dont need fairies and mermaids, but ponies and people would be bloody great

No, they are not, look at SWOP! for instance that has a lovely girl heroine. Kaye Umansky (sp?) also does girl books too.

I could ask for a list of specially suitable for girls if you like because I know one of the editors.

My ds3 is a 'reluctant' reader, but we got a load of the 'Magic Tree House' books (Mary Pope Osbourne, They're american, I don't think they are available here, maybe try Amazon) And because there are 36 really short (1 or 2 day) reads and all had the same characters in, he got into them, they have quite interesting facts and locations, within a short story.

Enid, are you a one form per year school? If not, could you ask your dd's teacher, and also the other class teacher if they've got any books stashed away. Ds1's Y1 teacher had some MUCH better books, when we were really fed up of Kipper and Biff etc, and he felt good that they were 'special' books.

The chocolate sounds loopy! But is her teacher so unreasonable that she couldn't get a sticker for reading a book that you've chosen? Perhaps you could ask the teacher to 'approve' the book or something, if the school is as controlling as it sounds.

Ponies and people - is she up to Malory Towers? The 3rd Year one of those is all about Bill and her horse Thunder.

she finds EB quite diffiuclt although is keen to read it as her friends do

barbarian that would be utterly fantastic (the list) thank you so much

I have emailed to ask for the list, Enid.

If she likes Enid B Hodder Children's books did a new series of books about George, heroine of the Famous Fives, set before original series began. They were ghost written in EB style (very well) and much more simple, aimed at 6-8s I think. Dd had at least six of them.

Are the Catherine Cookson books the Mary-Ann series? I used to enjoy those as a child, I can imagine them being suitable for some 11 year olds.

i'll look fennel

barbarian thank you so much

I dont suppose you can remember a title so that I can look on amazon?

Hi Enid, yes I have just found them, the Just George books eg:George, Timmy and the Haunted Cave (Just George) by Enid Blyton, Sue Weldon, and Sue Welford.

No ponies, I'm afraid but Timmy the dog is there.

Enid, your DD sounds very like my DD2, who is also in year three and has similar problems. She came off the reading scheme too early, went back on it and made good progress and is now off it again and like you I am tearing my hair out trying to find suitable books. She chooses books from the library that she wants to read but they are just too hard for her to manage so I have been sending her in with books from home - I really don't see why your DD's teacher would have a problem with it.
She is enjoying Junie B Jones and I was thinking of getting her these too.
DD2 also has these and they are pretty good.
these look good too

Crikey your school library sounds pretty rubbish. I would certainly be petitioning the school/PTA/whatever to increase their spending on books as a starter; and books for this 'free reading' section, not for the classrooms or whatever.

Our school has masses and masses of books.

I think to avoid reading becoming a 'terrible battle' it is crucial that dd is allowed to choose her own books, to be allowed to make mistakes in doing so, but as well she must have a reasonable selection to choose from.

If school can't provide these, then it's up to you I guess. I would just suggest it to the teacher in a way they can't refuse and get on with it.

Finally IME at this stage shared reading is the best technique: so you read a book together - you read a paragraph, she reads a paragraph, longer sections if you both have the energy! Handled correctly this can avoid the problems of getting books at precisely the right level. You can also leave it at a cliffhanger so she can read on alone in bed if she chooses.

PS Ds2 (8) also loves the Ghost books from The Book People (Cornelia Funke) mentioned above.