Finding the "Right Book"
Help your child find the right book to read
Picture readers are students who are not reading words yet. These students love to tell their own stories with the pictures they see on the pages. Children's picture books are great for this type of reader. Parents can listen to the child "read the pictures" and they the parent can read the words while pointing at the words to help give them meaning.
Books with colorful pictures that match the words on the page are great for this type of reader. Some of these books include:
1. Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae
2. The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
3. Mother Bruce by Ryan T Higgins
4. The Good Egg series by Jory John
5. The Very Impatient Caterpillar series by Ross Burach **
6. Pigeon series by Mo Willems **
7. There was an Old Lady series by Lucille Colandro
8. Click, Clack, Moo series by Doreen Cronin
9. Books by Jan Brett
10. Books by Eric Carle
Beginner readers are students who read books with simple sentences, high frequency words, repetition, rhyme, and use the pictures in the story to help them figure out unknown words. These students usually read aloud and tend to point to the words they read. They often read word by word.
Great books for this type of reader are:
1. Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli **
2. Level 1 and 2 Reader series
3. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series Laura Numeroff
4. Bear series by Karma Wilson
5. Llama Llama series by Anna Dewney
6. Pete the Cat series by James Dean **
7. Dr. Seuss books **
8. Little Critter series by Mercer Mayer
9. Grumpy Monkey series by Suzanne Lang **
10. Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems **
11. Mr. Putter and Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant
12. Penny series by Kevin Henkes
** Popular books at South
Beginner Chapter Book Readers are students who are reading more independently but still need the help of pictures for unknown words. These students are reading books with a paragraph or two per page with pictures throughout the book. These are typically books with a few chapters. Students are this level still read aloud and still tend to point to the words as they read. They need the support of an adult for unknown words but they tend to read in longer phrases and do not have to "decode" as many words. These are students who miss less than 5 words when they read a few paragraphs.
Great books for this type of reader are:
1. Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo
2. Billy and the Mini Monsters series by Susanna Davison **
3. Bramble and Maggie series by Jessie Haas
4. The Teacher from the Black Lagoon chapter book series by Mike Thaler
5. Level 3 and 4 level readers
6. Dragon series by Dave Pilkey **
7. Adventure Friends series by Brandon Todd **
8. Best Buddies series by Vickie Fang **
9. Mister Shivers series by Max Ballier
10. Racing Ace series by Larry Dane Brimner
11. Hey Jack and Billie B Brown series by Sally Rippin
** Popular books at South
Chapter Book Readers are students who are becoming more independent readers. They tend to want to read to themselves but they do not mind reading aloud. These students enjoy reading books in series. They can read for an extended period of time and do not rely on pictures as much to read unfamiliar words. They do tend to enjoy books around 100 pages.
Great books for this type of reader are:
1. Magic Tree House series Mary Pope Osborne
2. Junie B Jones series by Barbara Park
3. Dragon Masters series by Tracey West **
4. Eerie Elementary series by Max Brallier
5. Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol series by Andres Miedoso **
6. Sophie Mouse series by Poppy Green **
7. Jake Maddox sports series
8. Here's Hank series by Henry Winkler
9. Olivia's Secret Scribble series or Ella's Diary series by Meredith Costain **
10. Ranger in Time series by Kate Messner
11. Heidi Heckelbeck series by Wanda Covern
12. Press Start series by Thomas Flintham **
13. Pixie Tricks series by Tracey West
14. Once Upon a Fairy Tale by Anna Staniszewski
15. Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale
16. Axel and Beast series by Adrian Bott
17. Geronimo Stilton series
18. The Last Firehawk series by Katrina Charman **
19. My Weird School series by Dan Gutman **
20. A to Z Mysteries series by Ron Roy
21. Hilde Cracks the Case series by Hilde Lysiak
** Popular books at South
Graphic Novel Readers are students who tend to find themselves between Chapter Book Readers and Advanced Chapter Book Readers. These students love the quickness of how a graphic novel reads. They really get a lot out of the illustrations as well (setting, character emotions, and tone). Despite what many believe, students are able to comprehend the story and details from graphic novel adaptations of traditional novels. A good graphic novel adaptation will leave the reader with the same information whether they read the novel or graphic novel version.
Great books for this type of reader are:
1. Dog Man and Catkid series by Dav PIlkey **
2. Baby-Sitter Club series **
3. Big Nate series by Lincoln Peirce
4. Mr. Wolf's Class by Aron Nels Steinke **
5. Phoebe and Her Unicorn series by Dana Simpson
6. InvestiGators series by John Patrick Green
7. Bird and Squirrel series by James Burks **
8. Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland **
9. Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi **
10. Bad Guys series by Aaron Blabey **
11. Camp series by Kayla Miller
12. Smile series by Raina Telgemeier **
13. New Kid series by Jerry Craft
** Popular books at South
Advanced Chapter Book Readers are ready for novels and series. These readers are learning what genres they enjoy. They tend to read for extended periods of time. They also follow certain authors and stay within one or two genres. These readers are fluent when they read aloud. They are working on building their vocabulary and comprehension.
Great books for this type of reader are:
Animals
1. Warriors series by Erin Hunter **
2. Magic Puppy series by
3. Ralph and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
4. Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
5. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Spooky
1. Goosebumps by R.L. Stine
Fantasy
1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling **
2. Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis
3. Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
4. Books by Roald Dahl
5. The Wild Robot series by Peter Brown **
6. Books by Kate DiCamillo
7. The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann
Humor
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney **
2. Dork Diaries series by Rachel Renee Russell
3. Timmy Failure series by Stephan Pastis
4. Ramona series by Beverly Cleary
Historical Fiction
1. I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis **
2. Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. Books by Alan Gratz **
4. Epic Historical Adventure series by Felice Arena
Mystery
1. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library series by Chris Grabenstein **
2. Winterborne Home series by Ally Carter **
3. City Spies series by James Ponti **
4. Coop Knows the Scoop by Taryn Souders**
5. City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau
6 Secret Agent Jack Stalwart series by Elizabeth Singer Hunt
Realistic Fiction
1. Hatchet series by Gary Paulsen
2. Holes series by Louis Sachar
3. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
4. Moo by Sharon Creech (novel in verse) **
Sports
1. Books by Mike Lupica
2. Books by Tim Green **
3. Jake Maddox JV series by Jake Maddox
4. Rebound series by Kwame Alexander (novel in verse)
** Popular books at South