Tom & Ricky books are magic!

[Kanin]

So my 10 year old, very dyslexic student who never reads anything except under extreme duress has now finished a Tom & Ricky book. He read it himself, without me... but he narrated everything that he read in real-time, very excitedly... "they're at the lake!" "oh, there's a light on the island!"

 

And then...

 

"I'm starting to like to read!"

 

AHHHHHH!!!!!!

 

Excuse me while I pass out!

Edited January 29, 2018 by Mainer

[exercise_guru]

Awesome. It makes a big difference when there are a lot of decodable words and an interesting story. I just danced in the air when my son found a book he was engaged in and really liked. When a young boy really clicks that reading is awesome and interesting to him it makes a big difference. 

 

Can I recomend a little later on looking into the Galaxy Zac Series and the Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot Series.  They are around 500L . My son passionately read those. Then a little higher he really liked the The World According to Humphrey. He wasn't jumping for joy with magic treehouse and A-Z mysteries but I have heard some boys really like them. He also loves high low nonfiction. 

 

Here is a nice site to find good books that are highly decodable. It looks like your son is reading 300L 

https://fab.lexile.com/book/details/9780590307208/

[Julie of KY]

My ten year old is co-reading Tom and Ricky books right now with me. 

[PeterPan]

That's exciting!!!!!

[Kanin]

Awesome. It makes a big difference when there are a lot of decodable words and an interesting story. I just danced in the air when my son found a book he was engaged in and really liked. When a young boy really clicks that reading is awesome and interesting to him it makes a big difference. 

 

Can I recomend a little later on looking into the Galaxy Zac Series and the Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot Series.  They are around 500L . My son passionately read those. Then a little higher he really liked the The World According to Humphrey. He wasn't jumping for joy with magic treehouse and A-Z mysteries but I have heard some boys really like them. He also loves high low nonfiction. 

 

Here is a nice site to find good books that are highly decodable. It looks like your son is reading 300L 

https://fab.lexile.com/book/details/9780590307208/

 

Thanks for the suggestion! He'll probably be out of the library's Tom & Ricky in a couple weeks.

[Kanin]

Oh, Galaxy Zack looks perfect. I love the pages with half-picture, half words. Thank you!!

[alisoncooks]

Thanks for the rec! My 9.5 year old (suspected dyslexic) has been a tough nut to crack. I still haven't found a series that pulls her in. Off to see if my library has this. :)

[Julie Smith]

Another series that might be at the level you are looking at, “boy vs. Beastâ€

[exercise_guru]

My son thoroughly enjoyed those books  and thats a wonderful problem to have when they run out of a series and you are on the hunt for another good one. Our library has a lot high interest  low level non- fiction, machines, animals, cooking, magic these types of books with lots of decodable words and common sight words. They were wonderful for my son.  I will look and see what else he really got into. I just remember that spark and how vindicating it felt. Finally the boulder wasn't crushing me as I pushed it up the hill. It started to roll!!! 

 

Reddy Freddy would be comparable for  a next step. The scholastic books have quite a few that are in that early early chapter book range. I think A-Z Mysteries were in there. 

 

Flat Stanley is another series some kids really enjoyed my son didn't think it was much of a big deal to have this flat little boy that went everywhere.  I would put it more toward the end of 2nd grade level.He was super into that hamster though read every single book in the series. 

Roscoe Riley Rules  Fun little series this might be one at just the right reading level. 

Horrible Harry some kids like him and it is 1st-2nd 

Captain Awesome but that came out after my son had passed that level but it looks good. 

My son loved loved stepping stones books cute short stories here are a few we liked

Aliens for Dinner

SuperTwins this was a book I actually bought The series because my son really enjoyed them and the vocab was right where I needed it at the time  and the library had the first book. 

 

 

 

Then after that Nate the Great and then after that Big NATE. 

Jack Stalwart was a good series for 2-3rd as reading took off and interest in spy's were high. 

 

 

For Girls My daughter Love Loved Loved  Ivy & Bean Its a friendship book and much better than junie B Jones not snarky. I think it is a bit higher than galaxy zac but not much. 

 

 

Oh and magic kitten magic puppy books a little later on were very good 

Then there was the mermaid and pony phase, Rainbow magic, as well where there are a lot of good solid early and later chapter books.  I think there was a unicorn phase as well. I will have a look at her old reading list. The most important thing for me was to find books that were engaging enough to be worth it but at the right level so she could build fluency

 

I discovered  Gooney Bird Greene Books  too late when my kids had passed that reading level but I love Lois Lowry . I think both boys and girls would enjoy that series. 

 

 

Also if you have a good library use it and you can search for books by reading levels and also most recommended lists at the lexical list or at this link for AR Reading level  then try to find them at your library or interlibrary loan. 

 

Yes the tough spot are those beginner books with nice paragraphs and good graphics.  We used AAR and I remember one day we were reading their very nice readers and then bang my son found some of those 1 2 3 high interest beginner books and became interested. 

 

I still truly love frog & Toad. Though I team read those more than remember my kiddos reading them on their own.  The Step into reading series is good as well but they are early readers that still bank in a quite a bit of higher vocabulary so its tough to match age and interest some times. 

 

Also if you want to put out some money for leveled readers online  you can do a search for A-Z Reading subscription and RAZKids for the pad/tablet. They have some very nice series that build and a lot of books. There is some good nonfiction and science that would be of strong use for homeschool.  I still like the library best though and of course if they love the book and choose it thats always better.  I would search "Early Chapter books for Boys and Girls "

I used this link for some nice early chapter book links when my kids were young. 

Edited January 30, 2018 by exercise_guru

[Pegs]

So my 10 year old, very dyslexic student who never reads anything except under extreme duress has now finished a Tom & Ricky book. He read it himself, without me... but he narrated everything that he read in real-time, very excitedly... "they're at the lake!" "oh, there's a light on the island!"

 

And then...

 

"I'm starting to like to read!"

 

AHHHHHH!!!!!!

 

Excuse me while I pass out!

How exciting! My DS had a tough start to reading because of undiagnosed vision problems. I still do an internal happy dance every time I see him engrossed in a book.

[mamamoose]

Does anyone know if there are books at a 2nd grade level? The high noon books I have are lower than what my son needs at this point but I don’t want to spend that kind of money again if it’s not what he needs.

[Kanin]

Galaxy Zack says 3.0, but it looks easier than a lot of 2nd grade books I've seen. The pages on the Amazon preview look like 1/2 words, 1/2 picture. Not intimidating at all.

[Lecka]

I really like the Scholastic Branches line.

 

I’m trying Calendar Mysteriers by Ron Roy, and Horrible Harry by Suzy Kline right now (for listening comprehension for my son).

 

Ready, Freddy by Abby Klein is also listed as a 2nd grade reading level, but we haven’t tried it yet.

 

If you search by reading level, Henry and Mudge (which we love) are F, and then Magic Tree House I think is M.

 

My daughter read Junie B. Jones and the Fairy books that are so popular lately with little girls. I liked Junie B. Jones a lot with my daughter, after having a bad impression of them with my son. My daughter likes to be outraged, it is the same way she is with Nellie Oleson now in the Little House books.

[Lecka]

We had Wallace and Grace Take the Case recently, I just looked and I think it is level K.

[Lecka]

Honestly you might look through some Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I’m not very familiar with them, and they have a higher reading level because they are for older kids, but my daughter had one recently and I thought it didn’t look too hard. It’s popular, and that would go a long way with my older son sometimes.

[Pen]

Does anyone know if there are books at a 2nd grade level? The high noon books I have are lower than what my son needs at this point but I don’t want to spend that kind of money again if it’s not what he needs.

 

 

It partly depends on your son's interest level and other things like amount of print on page.

 

My son used a number of things between HN chapter books and being able to read Rick Riordan etc. level.  Buddy Files, Magic Tree House, and Hank the Dog are amongst things I now recall.  Spencer Quinn's series for kids involving dog were not yet out or that would probably have been one. Series were especially helpful.  We especially sought out books with dogs due to son's love of dogs.  If your son loved baseball or airplanes or science or whatever, I'd look to try to find series that fit that.

 

HN is unusually careful about incremental difficulty jumps, plenty of white space on pages etc. and also has material that can appeal to older children or teens who still are at a low decoding level, but if your ds can get into it, Magic Tree House can easily span from grade 2 to grade 4 level, especially if you start from the beginning of the series and look at the level on the book.