My ds-now-7 read a *lot* of great picture books when he was learning to read -- he taught himself to sight read with picture books. We never did early readers, but he pored over picture books every night!

Some of our favorites:

"Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney:
http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Rumphius...mp;s=books&qid=1248911685&sr=1-1

"The Three Questions" and "Stone Soup" by Jon J. Muth -- these are fabulous picture books and I can't recommend them highly enough:
http://www.amazon.com/Jon-J-Muth/e/B001H6UCHW/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

"Imagine a Night" by Rob Gonsalves:
http://www.amazon.com/Imagine-Night...mp;s=books&qid=1248911706&sr=1-1

Shel Siverstein writes wonderful poetry for kids that makes my ds laugh out loud:
http://www.amazon.com/Shel-Silverstein/e/B000AQ15KI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

"The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka:
http://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Th...mp;s=books&qid=1248911992&sr=8-1

"Dear Mrs. LaRue" by Mark Teague:
http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Mrs-Laru...mp;s=books&qid=1248912038&sr=1-5

"Scaredy Squirrel" by Melanie Watt (one of ds7's all-time favorites):
http://www.amazon.com/Scaredy-Squir...mp;s=books&qid=1248912100&sr=1-1

A combo of Captain Underpants and Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins books finally pushed my little guy over the edge, from picture books to chapter books. He also really enjoys (and has re-read many times) the American Girl books -- they're at all not "girly," they just happen to be about girls! smile

He will read chapter books now (very quickly!), but prefers non-fiction almost any day of the week. Have you tried much non-fiction for your ds?

Mia