I have a 4yo who skipped into K this year. Totally ready for chapter books BUT gets overwhelmed when she sees a ton of words on a page. She can read & understand but it's not as fun for her because of less pictures, ect. I am looking specifically for an easy chapter book with higher vocab but still bigger text and plenty of pics. Mercy Watson type of book. She also enjoys Critter Club. Any other suggestions? Please?? She's literally read every first reader known to man.
Thanks!!

Cam Jansen.

Hank the Cowdog.

Magic Treehouse.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are a good gateway to chapter books, since they're liberally sprinkled with illustrations.

Not chapter books, but not really "first readers," either, my DD still enjoyed Berenstain Bears even after she was already reading chapter books at 6/7yo.

Has she read Geronimo Stilton books? They're a big hit at my house.

DS6.5 is similar - he still gets overwhelmed with many words on a page, even though he _could_ read at a grade 4-5 level.

Sometimes covering the page with an envelope works for him - when he lets me do it.

He does better with graphic novels - there are some for younger kids (Baby Mouse?)

He also sometimes reads non-fiction - i.e. books that have lots of pictures and short snippets of facts.

Henry and Mudge

Would you consider graphic stuff? There is an awesome series of Geronimo Stilton graphic novels where Geronimo and family travel in time to stop the "Pirate Cats" from changing history. The bonus is that they go to lots of historical stuff, so DS got to learn, e.g., about how/when the Eiffel Tower was built, and how Parisians weren''t crazy about it, and how it was supposed to be temporary etc. Here is a link to that book: http://www.amazon.com/Geronimo-Stil...8-7&keywords=geronimo+stilton+papercutz. But the whole series is fun.

Can2 - jinx you owe me a coke!

Sue

Picture books can have lovely worthwhile content but fewer words to overwhelm young ones. We've liked illustrated fairy tales like Jan Brett's books, the Six Swans, Tom Thumb. George and Martha books, Frog and Toad books, have fewer words to the page as well.

My daughter really got sucked in to the world of chapter books by abridged children's classics. The abridged Peter Pan rocked her world and we went on from there.

Tashi series. Toys Go Out. Comic books.

Ditto, some picture books actually have really high level text, because adults typically read them TO children.

Have you tried the Bad Kitty books? My daughter loved those around that age. The text level varies but they have lots of pictures and the text is not very dense.

You might also look for non-fiction in areas that might interest her.

My Father's Dragon trilogy ? My 11 year old just loved those books

I second the Geronimo Stilton books. Big hit in my house, lots of words yet still lots of pictures. Captain Underpants was a huge hit with my DS.

My son also enjoyed Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs Piggle Wiggle and other "chapter books" where each chapter is it's own short story.

I also recommend advanced picture books. I'm a huge fan of Bill Peete, his books are still picture books yet have a lot of words on one page. And the language is more complex than a first chapter book. First chapter books the language (lexile level) is often very easy and the stories a bit boring. In K my son mostly liked non-fiction, and he was reading books like Magic School Bus books (some of them have a lot of text) and non-fiction books about science & animals.

Last suggestion, if you are not already start READING chapter books with your child. Choose ones that are 2-3 years above their reading level. One chapter a night there are many great books to choose from.

"One chapter a night there are many great books to choose from."

Totally agree with read-alouds that are ahead of reading level. But "one chapter a night" makes me smile.

We've never managed to do only one chapter! We are in the Heroes in Training series right now (which he could actually read to himself but enjoys as reading time). Last night, DS7 wanted to get into his pjs an hour early so we wouldn't have to argue about not having time to read the WHOLE book.

I love reading time. I hope it never ends.

Just so you know Diary of a Wimpy kid is about a 5th grade reading level.

What about Nate the Great?

Mercy Watson would have been one of my suggestions.

I also love picture books....but look over in the 398.2 section of children's non-fiction for great books that are fairy tales, folk tales, legends, etc. Some of the best picture books are over there.

My DD loved Mr. Putter and Tabby series. I still have the picture issue and DD is 5.5

There are a lot of great ideas above - the one thing I'd add is to not worry too much about finding her the "right" book for moving up. Go to the library, let her pick and choose what she's interested in. If she still wants to read picture books, let her. In the meantime, keep reading to her - at whatever level you'd like to and she enjoys! The idea is to keep kids enjoying reading - they will jump ahead when they are ready

polarbear

DD4.5 is still on her comic book phase. I'm pretty sure we've borrowed all the sanitized DC Comic books from the library. I've bought her a few My Little Pony ones but they are so expensive. I am tolerating this since I believe in child-led learning but I am hoping she'd get tired of them very soon. I'm going to borrow the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind series next to see if it's age appropriate for her.

DD is re-reading Charlotte's Web because I won't let her watch the movie unless she finishes the book first. The edition we have with color illustrations is easier to read than most chapter books. I think paper quality and text size make a difference.

At her school, DD and two other girls have bonded together but I am a bit concerned about exclusive they have become so I'm thinking about reading The Hundred Dresses with her next. I'm not sure if you'd feel comfortable with the subject matter and it is a rather depressing story but I think it's another example of chapter books that are physically easy to read because of font size and spacing.

DD still is very much into picture books. When she finds the ones she loves, she wants to read them over and over. The latest hits were Uni the Unicorn and Gaston.

Overall, I'd say DD spends less than 1/4 of her reading time on "real" literature books and with those books, we take turns reading and I do check her comprehension and go over key vocabulary words. I don't think she'd be able to read complex chapter books independently for a few more years.

If you have an e-reader, then you can use any size fonts you want. For books with pictures, the Kindle Fire would be a better device than a dedicated Kindle e-reader.

For pseudo-chapter books, I loved the Maurice Sendak chapter books (Little Bear, Pierre, etc.) when my kids were little. I think those would fall under the category of K first chapter books.

There are lots of really good picture books for that age. The Day the Crayons quit is a fun, slightly advanced picture book.. David Adler's biographies and math books are excellent as well. I second the Geronimo Stilton suggestion. Nate the Great is also good. At this age, let her pick out what she likes to read.

Geronimo Stilton has a girlie series called Thea Stilton...

Here is a good thing about Geronimo Stilton (the regular books not the graphic novels I mentioned): The story progresses with text in a regular font. But about 3 or 4 times per page, the "font" is something silly that matches the word ("blue" is written in blue font or with a blue background, "scary" is written in shivery letters). This is great for read aloud, with the occasional chance for early readers to figure out a word.

The magic school bus chapter books have the text broken up by the kid's writing. Geronimo Stilton didn't really work here and to be honest I thought they had an odd tone for children's books.

Ive just been thru this with my ds who's now 4.5. He's still not keen on reading chapter books to himself and is in a phase of wanting me to read to him everything (i can sometimes get him to read page for page with me but that's about it).

We did Henry & Mudge, Nate the Great (olivia sharp is his girl counterpart), Geronimo Stilton, Tashi. He also has read some picture books. Seuss books are good as they're looooooong but not many sentences on a page usually. Eric Carle books are also good. I dont know if they're available in the US but here in Australia we have Solo readers/chapter books which are about the same level as Henry & Mudge. Zac Power also has some easy chapter books.

I would echo what polarbear said above. Just let her pick books and she'll discover some great ones and some not so great ones. The Little Bear books are adorable and have oodles of illustrations with decent vocab and some repetition, too. Letting her discover books plus continuation of read alouds will do wonders.

Also, the book Some of My Best Friends Are Books has great tips. That and the Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.

I hate to suggest them, but many girl early readers devour the Rainbow Fairies series.

Ultramarina, DS also devoured the Rainbow Fairies book when he was about six. He was already reading past that level but they really appealed to him, for some unknown reason. Although, now that I think about it, the idea of fairies is pretty timeless. lol

How about "Amanda and Her Alligator" by Mo Willems.

It is picture chapter book ... with 6 1/2 chapters ...

Cynthia Rylant's Mr. Putter and Tabby books are also "picture chapter books" with 4-6 chapters. I just love this series; it's so rare to have children's books that center on the elderly.

I remember that at that age, my DS jumped to the Magic Tree House series. All the black and white print with tons of words scared him - so I got him the ebooks and showed him how to zoom in to make the words bigger so that there were fewer lines per page and he was off to a great start. He still re-reads those books at age 7 because he loves that series a lot.

I think the RF books work well for some young kids because they are very predictable. That may also help with fluency. Their rated reading level is surprisingly high, btw--I don't think it's accurate.

Out of what we have, the Amelia Bedelia chapter books have larger text than most "real" books and a good smattering of interesting illustrations in the margins to break things up.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/listi...Book_15To24-_-Q000000633-_-2670686536209

As far as books with lots of pictures, my son loves the Studio Ghibli movies and there are lovely books that have full page illustrations from the movie with a nice amount of text overlayed on them. They have a lot of challenging new words, but no wall of text issues. Plus they are very interesting stories. I recommend Ponyo, Totoro, The Cat Returns, The Secret World of Arrietty (the link for this one includes some picture to see what the inside of the books look like), and Kiki's Delivery Service for young children. Some of the other books have some sections that may be a little scary for kids depending on the child. As there isn't a lot of text per page, the books are very long, about a hundred pages each. I highly recommend them.

http://smile.amazon.com/Ponyo-Pictu..._b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DN1XTB9BMT3HYYJTFRV

http://smile.amazon.com/Secret-Arri..._b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1TTZZCVDRNY52GXQ1WR8

That makes sense. Some of my fourth year classes were less than 20 as they were only for my major and we knew each others and the lecturers by the.

Some law and engineering are 5 years I think.

My 4 year-old really enjoyed the classic Winnie the Pooh book. The chapters are short stories. Nate the Great, Cam Jansen, and Martha Speaks books are also hits

Astrid Lindgren: children of troublemaker street, children of noisy village, Pippi long stocking. You may want to check whether the American editions have pictures, but the chapters in these books are self contained, sort of like short stories, and mostly very gentle (Pippi isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I tend to skip the tall stories and adult baiting these days, focusing on the play times in the house and outdoor adventures.)