My DD is 3. She's a reader, but a rather poor one. She loves to listen to things she wouldn't be able to read on her own, and she has the vocabulary of an older child. Every night before bed time I read her 1 or 2 books at the level she likes to listen to, and then she reads me 1 or 2 books at the level she's capable of reading. They are drastically different levels, but you can try to make the simple books more interesting by over-analyzing them. A little while ago she noticed that the toddler in her Clifford book was pictured with a stroller for the first half of the book, and the stroller just disappeared for the second half. You can try to identify the characters' motivations and feelings, etc. There's a Bob book where the dog sits on a bag that is later shown to have a hot dog in it. When the hot dog is revealed, it isn't squished like it should be.
If you can convince your child that the simple book can still be interesting to you, then they will probably find it interesting enough to read as well.
