When looking for the best books for emergent readers, what should you be looking for? Here are some tips that may help!
Keep it short.
When your child is showing more of an interest in reading books, you will want to be sure to find very basic, very short stories.
This will help your emergent reader to feel more accomplished when they finish a whole book!
Don’t worry if at first your child needs to read half of the story and be done for the day. When they’re just beginning to read a book, it’s best not to overwhelm them. Just keep at it, and won’t be long before they will be able to read the entire story.
Fun tip: Keep a running total of the books they read, with a prize for when they accomplish their goal!
For example—decorate a poster with your child’s name at the top and numbered spaces to fill in with the titles of each book. After your child has filled in 25 spaces, they get to receive a toy that they have always wanted. Celebrate their efforts in meaningful, fun ways!
Your child will love seeing the LONG list of all of the books they have read, which will help them feel good and accomplished…and what kiddo doesn’t love getting a toy after all of that hard work?!?
Sight words = frustration!
Emergent readers are not quite ready for books with a lot of sight words in them. Unfortunately, many beginning level books include a lot of sight words.
Often times, emergent readers have just completed the process of learning all of their letter sounds. They need to practice blending those sounds to make words, as well as reading these words in sentences.
The last thing they need is a lot of strange sight words that don’t follow the “sound out” rules. Words like “was” that they would expect to be spelled “wuz”…so confusing!
If your child has progressed to the point where they know their letter sounds and the sight words “a”, “the” & “is”, then they are ready for the Miss Wendy’s Favorite Phonetic Books kit. These books have NO sight words, other than those three. So. Much. Easier.
Choose books that will encourage reading skills, not guessing.
The best books for emerging readers are going to have little to no illustrations. Why is that important?
When you have a story with a picture on each page, your child will naturally want to look at the picture and guess and the storyline. This isn’t reading, it’s just guessing.
This leaves you scrambling to quickly cover the picture with your hand and tell your child to read what the words say. Sound familiar?
Many of my student’s parents have complained about having to do this with the stories their children read at home. They don’t want to teach their children to guess at the storyline based on the pictures they see, and often be wrong. They would rather teach their children to use and develop their reading skills. I agree!
Another problem with highly illustrated books, is that the pictures can be distracting.
When your child is trying to focus on the words in the story, they don’t need extra distractions. The text should be clear and have an uncluttered field of vision. This is particularly important if your child shows signs of attention issues.
Will your child miss seeing illustrations? Maybe. Or maybe your child will actually be relieved that the story is not so distracting, making it easier to read. Check out what this mom discovered when her children were reading Miss Wendy’s Favorite Phonetic Books, which have no illustrations other than the covers:
“With the books I was a little nervous about not having pictures and keeping my kids entertained. Well to my surprise when asking them what they liked about the book they said they liked that it didn’t have pictures. It makes it so they can make up the picture of how they would like it. I also like that it makes them have to focus on the words.” —Heather R., Mom
Another mom, whose daughter was missing the pictures had a creative solution. She and her daughter would draw pictures on a whiteboard of what her daughter just read. This way, her daughter could still use her reading skills without guessing at illustrations, and then demonstrate her comprehension level by drawing a picture. Genius!
I hope that these tips will help you when choosing the best books for emergent readers!