Books for Beginning Readers
A List Compiled by Jessie Wise, author of The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
(1) Phonetic or Decodable Readers
These readers contain no or very few sight words. Most of the words in the text can be sounded out.
Little Books and Little Owl Bowls
Modern Curriculum Press Phonics Practice Readers
J & J Language Readers, Levels 1, 2, & 3.
(2) “Partly phonetic” easy readers
These have lots of repetition and only a few words on a page. Some of these use non-phonetic sight words repeatedly. (The Carrot Seed—“It won’t come up.” and Fox Trot—“What’s that?”)
(3) “Easy Readers”
This category is confusing because most of these books are geared to whole language teaching and not to phonetic instruction.
They have just a few words on the page, but a beginning reader cannot read some of these books unless they memorize whole words. If there are many sight words or words the child has not yet encountered in his phonics instruction, I suggest you either read these books TO your child, pointing to the pictures OR wait until the child has been taught to read phonetically.
Some of these series are:
Road to Reading. Mile 1, Mile 2, etc. (Golden Books)
Dr. Seuss and P. D. Eastman books
Hello Reader. Level 1, Level 2, etc.
An I Can Read Book. Level 1, Level 2, etc.
You will notice that many of these “early-reading” library books use non-phonetic sight words to make the story line flow. After your child has the habit of sounding out phonetically regular words, you can point out to your child which words to sound out and which words just have to be known by sight. When you are reading together, just tell the child the sight words, and then have him continue reading the story sounding out the phonetically regular words.
(4) Books that are not too difficult for the student who has finished a phonics program.
(From Straight Talk About Reading by Louisa Moats)
First-Stage Beginning Reader
Harry Goes to Fun Land
A New House for Mole and Mouse
Second-Stage Beginning Reader
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Third-Stage Beginning Reader
The Case of the Hungry Stranger
Sheep in a Jeep (all of the Sheep books)
(These suggestions are from Reading Reflex)
Aesop’s Fables
