Once Your Child CAN Read!!!
It’s difficult to give an exact age, it depends on the child, but it will probably be between the ages of 6 and 8. Every child is different.
Make sure they start reading little paperback or ‘chapter’ books when they can – this is such a key stage in the child’s learning.
Reading the book together is a good idea. Sharing the reading – one page each or you read a few pages to the child to move the story on.
I will give some examples of books I have found good for this.
- Oxford Reading Tree books – officially a reading scheme, but nonetheless fun adventures.
- Rainbow Magic chapter books by Daisy Meadows. There is also now a set which is a cross between a reading book and chapter book.
- ‘Early Readers’ brought out by Orion Children’s Books.
- Usborne Young Readers (Beginner Series): Knights, Cats, Dogs, Pirates and many other titles.
- Secret Seven ‘easy read’ chapter books published by Hodder.
- Little Gem books published by Barrington Stoke.
- Winnie the Witch paperback books – some people don’t like mention of witches, but these are just comedy and at a good level.
- One can still find excellent books in the ‘Walker Stories’ series and the excellent Puffin ‘Read Alone’ series.
- The Adventure book Series by Bear Grylls.
- Girl Wonder Books by Malorie Blackman, if still available.
- The level steps up a bit here:
- Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl.
- The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne.
- Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon.
- Mr Majeika by Humphrey Carpenter.
- Animal rescue books.
- Other animal books such as Tanglewood Animal Park by Tamsyn Murray.
- Others in the earlier list which now can be read aloud.
New books are coming out all the time at this level.
‘The Works’ shops are a good place to look for early books.
There are also audio books, especially of classics. These are nice to be listened to together, say, on a car journey. Please see Additional Information and Resources.