My experience with DS8 was that reading more complex books TO him was more significant than getting him to read simple (and boring!) books himself. Those books are about the mechanics of reading. The books I read to him challenged his comprehension, showed him story form etc. I think in the long run focusing on those skills really benefitted him. From infancy that kid LOVED to be read to, but balked on the reading skills until end of first grade really. Then he made this huge jump and reads way above grade level now. He also often chooses books that are challenging for him mechanically but meet his needs for content. I would argue that exposure to more complex reading materials helped that along because once he got the mechanics down he just flew. When he was interested we worked on the mechanics, but I never replaced my reading to him with those activities.
I have been very clear with teachers (preschool and elementary) that I want my kids to enjoy and love reading, not feel like it is a chore. I know lots of people have different opinions on this and probably different kids need different things, but I feel really strongly about protecting that love of reading. And to be honest, it was really hard to wait DS out, but I knew that because of perfectionism etc., he wasn't going to do it until he was ready and then when he did do it, it would be way above expectations. He has been like that with most skills.
So, I really agree not to push her if she's not interested. Even though you observe that she is capable of more, she's telling you that she isn't ready yet by resisting the books. And fwiw, ds never really did read those phonics type books. I read to him until he was ready and he pretty much went straight to chapter books. Because those books ARE boring! lol
