ItoLina Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 My son Loves the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems. They are the first "real" books (meaning not Bob books or Nora Gaydos readers) he has been able to read without a big struggle. I am excited because he seems to enjoy rwading much more when he reads this type of book. Anyone have a good suggestion for books at this same level? We have pretty much cycled through all the Mo Willems books at our library at this point :001_smile: Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 Some Dr. Seuss books like "Red Fish, Blue Fish" or "The Foot Book" or "Hop on Pop" are pretty similar and also quite cute. I recall "Fly Guy" was another silly favorite. Otherwise, I'd just go to the library and pick up some easy readers that appeal to your little one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmyboys Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 My DS loved elephant and piggie too. Fly Guy is great, but a little harder. Puppy mudge is about the same level as elephant and piggie, and the author (Cynthia Rylant) has tons of readers at about a low second grade level. Biscuit easy readers are good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 How about the Pigeon book series by the same author? My kids were reading the DK readers, Step into Reading series and the I can read series when they were reading Mo Willems books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovinmyboys Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 I forgot the toon books. They have several, but one is Benny and Penny in just Pretend. They are easy comic books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 It's probably not the vocabulary level - it's probably the length. They have a similar vocabulary to most any other easy reader - Dr. Seuss, Henry and Mudge, Frog and Toad, Amelia Bedelia... they're just really short and funny. Just keep flipping through the library offerings for short books. I remember this stage well - when my boys could read a little, but even something like Frog and Toad, as easy as the words were, was too hard just because of the intimidation factor of seeing anything that long. (Ha, it's funny to think of Frog and Toad as long!) ETA: I forgot too! Benny and Penny is a really good suggestion - also Little Mouse and all the Toon Books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMRB Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 We are around that same point right now. The Fly Guy books have been the closest we've found in terms of text amount per page, color pictures, etc. My son reads E&P and Fly Guy out loud at night in bed and loves them. There are 2 Scholastic readers that are very much like Elephant and Piggie called Hippo & Rabbit. My son enjoyed them because they have the same bubble text style as Elephant & Piggie. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0545274451/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00 After these and Fly Guy, it wasn't too a big stretch to do Big Max, Ricky Ricotta, Dragon Tales (by Dav Pilkey), Bink & Golly, Young Cam Jansen, etc., if I'm with him to help. But I agree there's a horrible gap between Elephant & Piggie and those books that's hard to fill if your child likes reading independently and doesn't take to step readers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 After these and Fly Guy, it wasn't too a big stretch to do Big Max, Ricky Ricotta, Dragon Tales (by Dav Pilkey), Bink & Golly, Young Cam Jansen, etc., if I'm with him to help. But I agree there's a horrible gap between Elephant & Piggie and those books that's hard to fill if your child likes reading independently and doesn't take to step readers. Actually, I think some of the other easy reader series are wonderful. For my kids, it was a really big step between something like Elephant and Piggie and Cam Jansen! I know some kids go from Frog and Toad to Magic Treehouse in what seems like a matter of weeks, but a lot of kids linger and that's why I'm glad for things like Poppleton, Dodsworth, Amelia Bedelia, Mouse and Mole, Commander Toad and so forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMRB Posted October 18, 2012 Share Posted October 18, 2012 There are the Cam Jansen chapter books, and then there are Young Cam Jansen books. Young Cam Jansen is a much lower level, with a lot less text and color pictures on every page. It's definitely an easy reader, around the same level as Ricky Ricotta I would say. We just picked up the Dodsworth and Commander Toad books but haven't read them yet - they look great, too. We've found that decoding words isn't the problem, it's the intimidation factor of the amount of text on a page and the lack of pictures, so I keep hunting for books with a color pic on every page and not more than 2 inches of text. Longer picture books with audio that has page turn cues are also going a long way to bridge that gap right now and help with his independence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 It's probably not the vocabulary level - it's probably the length. They have a similar vocabulary to most any other easy reader - Dr. Seuss, Henry and Mudge, Frog and Toad, Amelia Bedelia... they're just really short and funny. Just keep flipping through the library offerings for short books. I remember this stage well - when my boys could read a little, but even something like Frog and Toad, as easy as the words were, was too hard just because of the intimidation factor of seeing anything that long. (Ha, it's funny to think of Frog and Toad as long!) ETA: I forgot too! Benny and Penny is a really good suggestion - also Little Mouse and all the Toon Books. I think this does have a lot to do with it. He is very intimidated by a whole paragraph on a page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to the library today to see what I can find. We have a small library and the easy reader section is pretty bad, we will see what I can find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaraH Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Elephant and Piggie were the first books my son read too and I was so excited we read them all! I really think it was the great illustrations and not too much text. The next ones we found (but had to buy) were the first Lego series eg Calling All Cars, All Aboard, Ready for Takeoff, Help is on the Way. There are about five, I think. After that Lego came out with some more but they have more, dense text and weren't as appealing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandylubug Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 the books about Biscuit the dog are similar to E&P, I also recommend Fly Guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMRB Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Also look for the Brownie & Pearl books by Cynthia Rylant - they have great illustrations, and usually only a line or two of text on each page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaChicken Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Great suggestions! We're loving Elephant and Piggie here too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItoLina Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I was able to find many of these at my library and order others through library loan. My son read one of the Fly Guy books last night and that was a hit. We are going to try out one of the Benny and Penny books this morning. From looking through those I think they wil be a good fit too. Thanks again for the great suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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