Good Book Suggestions for a 4 1/2 Year Old?

M.,

The Junie B. Jones series is good for that age. I work in a day care with 4/5 year olds and they really enjoyed those books.
Good Luck!
T.

I taught reading and reading comprehension at Heartland Home School Workshops in Crystal Lake. I recommend the Step into Reading books published by HarperTrophy. They are set at levels, Step 1 being the easiest. The beginning book only have a sentence or two on each page. There is also I can read Books published by HarperCollins. These are a little more challenging but are great for the beginning reader. Many of these books can be found at your local library or purchased used on www.ebay.com or www.half.com or www.abebooks.com.
If you are going to be home schooling your child and this your first step. May I suggest ABeka "A handbook to Reading". This book is designed for the readier who is learning by phonics not by sight. Better readers learn by phonics. This book can be purchased used on ebay or purchased new at www.abeka.com. Abeka offers a whole series of readers all the way through 6th grade.
Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights offers some good beginning readers also. I used these books with one of my students just last year. She was behind the others and needed a little extra work.

Don't start your child out with to hard of books or they will end up hating to read. Also ask question about what your child has just read to you. Early lessons on reading comprehension is very important. If you do not understand what you are reading school work will be harder in the upper grades. Learn comprehension skills early.

Good Luck and Have fun with reading,
S.

That's great! Believe it or not my son who just turned 5 a week ago and I have been reading the CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia books. They are a bit hard to read because of the language (olde english) at times but my son just loves them!!! We are on the 3rd book already. I hope he becomes an avid reader like my husband and I are.

It's amazing, I spoke with an early childhood teacher a few weeks ago (she was from a low income area in downstate IL) who said she gets kids into her kindergarten class that have never even seen a book, don't know what it is!! I just couldn't even imagine that!!! I don't really get how that could be true??? Don't all parents know, in this day and age, what a disservice that would be to their children??? Anyway, I am so grateful to give the gift of reading to my son! Glad you are too!

Are you looking for some more classics? I've loved most of the books you've listed. We've also read Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, Pippi Longstocking... We LOVE the Berenstain Bear books.

Other books on our list Little House series, classic fairy tales (Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel), some Shell Silverstein (my husband loves reading his poems to the girls).

I can send you a long list if you email me separately. We like books with morals that you can talk about after reading.

Good luck.

The Biscuit and Henry & Mudge series are great beginning books also!

I second the Bob Books! There are several sets that increase in difficulty and allow your child to grow. I gave my 4 yr old son the first set (purchased through the school Scholastics, which was much cheaper, I think it was $7.49), anyway...the first time he looked at it, he started to read...even without my help! He now (2 months later) reads books to his 2 yr old sister and has branched out to reading any book he can get his hands on. I tried renting these books at the local library, and they did not have them (to save money), but that does not mean your local library would not have them. Gosh...getting these books was one of the best things I ever did for my son. He loves reading and it is all due to the confidence he received by reading the Bob Books. Good Luck!

As a Kindergarten teacher, I definitely agree with the advice that Ericka gave concerning the library. There are also some specific books that I would recommend: "The Doll People" and "The Meanest Doll in the World" by Ann Martin, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl (along with all the books that he has written!), and the "Eloise" books by Kay Thompson are all great read-aloud books. Shel Silverstein ("Where the Sidewalk Ends", "A Light in the Attic", etc.) and Jack Prelutsky ("The New Kid on the Block", "A Pizza the Size of the Sun", etc.) are poetry books that are also great for beginning readers --- and are lots of fun!

I hope that helps! :-)

Hi M.--My daughter learned to read at about 5 years old from a set of books called "Bob Books"...I found them on amazon.com and have included the link for you:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-###-###-####-###...

I let a friend borrow them and within a week her son was reading, as well...definitely worth the purchase!!!!
Good Luck!

It is great that your child is reading so young! AS a former teacher turned SAHM, I would say go to the local library, get her a library card (her own) and let her pick what she thinks looks interesting. Don't push too much and let it be her thing!

Some that our family loved were the Bailey School Kids series, Junie B Jones Series, Eloise, The American girl doll collections, Series of unforntunate events, Judy Moody books, and Katy Kazoo Switcharoo books, Pippi Longstockings and Wayside School books, the Ramona series. Individual books my kids loved were Chocolate Fever, Double Fudge, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, sorry I can't think of any more. I would always take my kids to the bookstore at the beginning of the summer to pick several books to read and when the school had their book fair in the school year I would buy anything they wanted...I have always focused on trying to find great books for them. Our house is loaded with books and I am saving them all to divide between my grandkids one day because I hope they will learn to love reading too. My daughter is 12 and this school year she read all the Harry Potter books in just 2 weeks. Get a library card too and just take her there, I'm sure you will find lots of great books.

Hi M.,

I am a former teacher and both my girls began reading with Usborne Books...their Farmyard Tales series and their Phonics REaders were perfect for beginning readers. Both were reading (and comprehending) before kinmdergarten. Usborne Books also carries leveled readers as well as retold classics for younger readers wanting for "more", I also recommend their Puzzle Books - a series of books with picture puzzles to solve as you read along. If you would like more info on any of these, let me know. I loved them so much, I have been a consultant for over 7 years!

D.

After my daughter mastered reading in Kindergarten I immediately started reading Junie B books. These books are easy for young children to relate to. She absolutely loved them. After I read a couple of chapters to her she of course wanted to read the books by herself. Since then she has built up enough confidence to read chapter books independently and she enjoys every moment. I even enjoy her reading to me.

How about Flat Stanley, Little House on the Prairie, and if you really want to start teaching her about reading and spelling errors..but has a lot of inventive spelling...My son is reading Captain Underpants...the comics have a ton of spelling errors...but you can talk to her about that...and I must say it is quite humorous. But then that is if you can handle boyish humor. My kids started reading with Hop on Pop. Never forget to let her enjoy the books. My son is an early reader...but he focusses so much time on reading the words that I think he sometimes misses the context. And he gets frustrated when I try to teach him the new vocabulary words involved in some. A scrapbooking buddy recommended a book my kids loved called Mr. Pudgins- very Mary Poppins like...we loved it. Oh yeah...another one called No Flying In the House- a book about a little girl who discovers she is a fairy.