What Books are Good for Kids that are learning to

read

We all know that reading to children is important – we’ve

talked about this in these articles before.

Reading to children helps develop their vocabulary and language skills, it’s a way of encouraging

them along the journey to literacy, and it’s a great way to create

memories and share special time with your children.

But to get the most out of this experience, you need to choose

the right sort of book.

The very first books to read to small children are the “look and point” type, where there are a

few words and some big pictures on the page.

This phase passes soon enough – and you might want to move on to the next phase if you have more than one child who also wants to

be read to.

A good book for pre-schoolers needs to meet several criteria. However, these criteria aren’t simple vocabulary and bold

pictures.

Sure, these can help, but a good book for pre-schoolers can break these rules. A good book is one that parents enjoy reading to

children.

You are more likely to read a story to your children again and again (and again) if it’s something you

can appreciate in some way.

Over-simple stories with not-so-hot drawings are going to bore the parent doing the reading, and your feelings about the book will come out, in spite of your best efforts to

disguise this.

You would do better to read a recipe book to your pre-schooler.

Something with a little bit of plot tension and a little bit of character

is much more interesting, and good illustrations also go a long

way.

Length is the second consideration. It’s best to steer clear of proper “chapter books”

when your children are pre-schoolers and to go for stories that

stand alone in one sitting.

Stories which contain a stand-alone story for each chapter work well, though (Why are most of the stories of this type older books?

Why is nobody writing these today?). However, if your pre-

schooler is about four or five, and you have older children, you might

be able to start some chapter-book classics

like Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in The Willows, The Hobbit and so

forth.

For some suggested children books,

check out

www.fridayschildmontessori.com