I need some more advice on suitable books for a four year old. She is reading for pleasure and I simply can't keep up. She has a good reading age - from what I can tell it is around age eight- but is turning her nose up at anything with pictures. The problem is that ones without pictures have difficult vocabulary. ( ever explained what a wainscot is?)
My other daughter read the magic treehouse series and the princess pirate series and loved both. And read a terrific amount of non-fiction.
Miss 4 wants fiction. And character development. Not too thick a book as to be daunting. She loves fairy tales- proper ones with a bit of gruesome action not the saccharin modern ones. She likes to read a book in one sitting - either the entire book, or a chapter.
What about abridged classics? Some abridged stuff is available in the Large Print section of the library.
What about asking at the school to borrow some of the readers that your eldest daughter's friends are up to?
You could try and find those old threads in this forum from when your 1st was 4. There were a lot of good suggestions there.
My 2nd is not reading independently as far as I can work out. She appears to be the prolific artist and highly creative/dramatic. It's a lot more work than the 'easy' road of an avid reader like my 1st.
I'm also trying to find suitable reading for my son (he is about to turn 5 and I think a reading age of 8 or 9). Around 6 months ago he read thru the majority of the Roald Dahl books and seemed to really enjoy them. There were some very big words for him to tackle but the books held his attention and got a few giggles. Other bonus is they aren't huge books. Unfortuntely though for your daughter they do have pictures in them.
The Moomin books are really good. Although there are a few pictures in them, they aren't 'picture books' as such. They have nice length chapters on the whole but are not usually more than 180 pages. You may also want to try out some of the Diana Wynne Jones Chrestomanci books and some of the Margaret Mahy novels for younger readers.
If you're in Wellington head to The Children's Bookshop - they've been fantastic at helping me find books for my three year old son. In Auckland the Dorothy Butler Bookshop in Ponsonby is amazing too.
Good luck with keeping her inspired and reading - it's a fabulous gift!
Can I jump on board with this question too? I have a 3.5 yr old who has blown me away with his reading ability and I want to find things for him to read too. Last night (by torchlight) he read Cat in the Hat...all by himself. What did you use for this age group?
ooops...ignore me...I just realised I had already asked this in another thread....just forgot and never checked the responses. I tell you, I am losing my mind
