Top picks for early reader books
For "levels" 1-3
I wrote a previous post about picture books, and here is the equivalent for books for kids who are learning to read. Please help a sister out when it comes time for me to write about chapter books: we’ve found it so hard to find good options!
As you will have experienced, each publisher, confusingly, has seemingly rather different standards for reading “levels.” So I’ll ignore all of them, and just post in a generally progressive order of difficulty/approachability.
But not first without listing the Frog and Toad series at the very top. Because, it is the best. Buy it. Toad is the shadow in all of us: grouchy, unenthused, cowardly, selfish, ugly, dorky, stupid. And Frog loves and nurtures him through all of it.1 We are ultimately all alone in the world, but sometimes we’re lucky enough to find someone to be our witness. For the kids, it also discusses such themes as ice creams and cookies.
Early, early days of reading books
School of Monsters. These have more words per page than a true beginner book, but I’m putting these here because you can read them along with your child: you read the bulk of the text, and they read only a single highlighted word on each page. A really gentle way to hold their hand through the potentially intimidating process of reading a book!
Bob Books. Oz was responsible for introducing these into our house, so I asked him whether he had any comments for this post. Oz: “They’re not exactly literature.” Indeed. The basic idea is that they’re short and simple, and therefore approachable and empowering. But they’re also superbly boring. I’d suggest a small number of them, and only at the very basic level, so that your kid can get the satisfaction of reading a book nice and quickly into their reading journey. But don’t linger too long here: much more fun awaits.
The Long Dog. Simple, fun, and rhythmic.
The Elephant & Piggie series. I won’t implore you to buy these, but they are cute and simple and benign. And have a good ratio of pictures:text for beginner readers.
We use a lot of opportunity to share in the reading of random sentences we encounter in life.
Our kids have also both enjoyed typing their own stories… The act of spelling out words with a parent is much fun.
Books with more zing, for when they’re ready to read 3-5 sentences per page.
Henry and Mudge. I love Henry and Mudge so much (not quite as much as Frog and Toad, but a lot). I want to be a kid to Henry’s parents. Or I suppose I’m at the age to rather aspire to be Henry’s parents. When our kids are sick, I regularly turn to this series for its feel-good, cozy vibes. Just simple, wholesome adventures of an only child, Henry, and his big dog, Mudge. One of my favorite kids’ book series.
Frog and Toad belongs here.
(Nothing compares to the above, but since you’re going to want to buy more than just two book series, well, okay, the below are also nice. But please, please buy the two above - they’re so lovely):
The Berenstain Bears collections. I was not like you, but if you grew up in the 70s and 80s in the US (and maybe elsewhere), these likely hold sentimental value. I appreciate how benign2 and simple they are, but not at the expense of being boring for kids. e.g. “The Bike Lesson” and “The Big Honey Hunt”.
The Ling & Ting series. About twin sisters and their humorous, wholesome antics. The books have a good rhythm and appealing (thoughtful) illustrations. Bonus: the author throws in a bit of deeper humor for the adults in the room.
Geraldine Pu. Our eldest enjoys these, likely because of their graphical layout (akin to a comic).
The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library. Respite from young kids’ fiction - a nice selection of engaging non-fiction. You will probably learn a thing or two about, for example “Oh The Pets You Can Get!” and “There’s No Place Like Space!”
Usborne also does awesome non-fiction books.
Dr Seuss. Of course! Out of all we’ve read, The Cat in The Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Wacky Wednesday, and There’s a Wocket in My Pocket stand out.
Richard Scarry books.3 Of course, again!
Written in the 70s, so the friendship portrayed is far more limited than it deserves. It is a love story.
Not completely - they’re a little dated e.g. with their gender norms, and in the frequent digs at how lame and silly dad is. Daaaaaad.
Also ft. dated gender norms.
Thanks for the School of Monsters suggestion, my daughter really enjoys them. They seem like a helpful way to drill the harder sight words and with more agency than me pointing at random words in books (since she knows that part of the deal of choosing to read the monster book is she needs to read the colored words). I just wish there were more of them because I think she starts memorizing them and cheating at the reading part.