Books for DD (Yr 1) to read herself

[Bramshott]

I would really like to get DD1, who's in Yr 1, some books she can read herself which aren't school reading books. She enjoys reading and is reading at ORT Level 5 at school.

Can anyone make any suggestions?

Dd enjoys things like The Princess and the Wizard (Julia Donaldson), Charlie and Lola, Princess Mirrorbelle, Milly-Molly-Mandy, The Worst Witch.

Look for some of these ranges:

Blue Bananas
Colour Young Puffin
I Am Reading
Colour Young Hippo
Ready Steady Read
Leapfrog
Colour Crackers
Usborne Young Puzzle Adventures
Marks & Spencers First Readers
Dr Seuss
Topsy and Tim
Winnie the Witch
Charlie and lola (good for introducing the odd long word)
Horrid Henry
Daisy and the Trouble with
Allan Ahlberg's boks about The Gaskitt Family
Allan Ahlberg's Happy Families Range

Thanks Hula - that list looks really useful!

Thanks Tortoiseshell too - will definitely check out some of those.

Have you been to the library? Ours has a special section for new readers, with a lot of the things that Hulababy has mentioned in it.

And then it's a lot easier to experiment.

Also, the Rainbow Fairy books are truly nauseating, but I haven't yet met a 5-7 year old girl who doesn't love them! There are line drawings on every page and the sentences are quite short. They were certainly the first thing DD1 read alone, at about the same stage of Year 1.

Ah, that's useful - I'd wondered about Rainbow Fairies but didn't know how complicated the text was in them. I was also put off by the fact that you only seem to be able to buy them in packs of 24 books!

You can get them individually in our WHSmith.

Be warned, though. The plot more or less the same in all 17 million of them. So make sure she DOES want to read them herself - not have Mummy reading them to her. Will drive you round the twist

On the bright side, I can produce an hour or so of peace and quiet on a Saturday afternoon by presenting DD1 with another one in the series!

What about My Naughty Little Sister series?

My dd is the same age and also really likes reading encyclopaedia type book - lots of fab ones available from cheapy outlets like The Works with lovely pictures - animals, geography, the weather, etc. etc.

The Book People have special offers on various sizes of boxed sets of Rainbow Fairies atm.

Oh don't remind me Morninghpaper - last night she went to bed with the Usborne Encyclopedia and then informed me she thought there was an anglerfish living under her bed , .

Maybe I need to develop more confidence in her reading ability, because my first reaction to some of these suggestions (Milly Molly Mandy, or My Naughty Little Sister for example) is "of course she won't be able to read that"!

My naughty little sister has v. short chapters and BIG WRITING and not many hard words

lol @ anglerfish

dd quite likes the Mary Pope osborne series of books

Bramshott - many early reaers get put off by the number of words per page. That is why some of those on my list is good as the text is big and there are a lot of big colour pictures splitting it all up.

When first tackling books like Horrid Henry, Rainbow Fairies and My Naughty Little Sister - try she reads one page, you read the next, etc. These type IMO are best tackled when they feel confident reading to themsves.

Thanks Hula - that's exactly what I want to avoid. She stuggled with reading for quite a while but now it suddenly seems to have 'clicked' and she's really keen to read as much as she can.

I'm liking the look of Happy Families as I think that would appeal to DD's sense of humour. I never realised you could look inside some books on Amazon before!

Captain Underpants is good in that it has very short chapters, interspersed with comic strip bits as well. But very American and quite appalling to any adult that gets roped in. Also depends whether toilet humour appeals - it certainly did to my DS.

The happy families are fantastic. Dd loved them. Not too long either. Personally I think these ar a better starting point than the longer chapter books whilst your dd is at this stage.

If she likes them have a look at his other books. The gaskitt ones such as the man who wore all his clothes. Small chapters, very funny. Really manageable.

The Book People have an offer on Happy Families also.

I just looked that up too Frogs but it is out of stock

This thread has been really useful - thank you!