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My ds9 is also a reluctant book-selector, not sure why. Once he is hooked on a book or series however, he just devours them.
I will pick books and try to get him interested by having him try one chapter or reading a bit out loud.

My ds was also keenly interested in books with pictures, still is, frankly. We had an intermediate phase between picture books and chapter books where he was reading a lot of manga, and other books that are like comic books, captain underpants (franny k. stein is a good one like this, lots of pictures, but more appealing to girls, funny, etc.). Few words on a page, but lots more pages!!
I think lots of words on a page were sort of daunting to my ds at the time.

Come to think of it, I'm 30 and I still take my mom's book recommendations. I wouldn't have done it when I was 14, though.

Now I remember that D2 was also reluctant to read chapter books (it was several years ago!). I just kept helping her check a pile out of the library, and read her some books that I thought she could read herself. I would try to stop reading while she still wanted more... Then I would make sure to leave the book next to her bed. It took several months, but eventually she got tired of waiting for me and started reading ahead on her own. It was sort of like training wheels

I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for educating me about the Magic School Bus books. DD loves them, and she spent a good fifteen minutes in the car today totally immersed in just one book.

One down, 19 to go . . .

You could have been describing my five-year-old. Something has changed recently, and she can now eat those Fairy Books. Example: she started one last night for bedtime reading and finished it this morning. I had to run out and get the next one in the series, and we're halfway through it already.

We take turns reading pages out loud, though sometimes she just barrels ahead to a page that should be mine. She can now read a page almost as quickly as I can, but there's still some kind of fatigue thing going on. For example, she starts missing easy words (and, her) after she's been reading for a half-hour or so.

Nono5, have you tried giving your DD Level 3 or 4 DK Readers? They have lots of pictures. Other random DK books can be captivating even if you don't read them word-for-word.

Val

I don't know if I've seen any DK readers, but I'll keep an eye out. We've done the DK Eyewitness books. For a while, DD was asking for five or more of them each time we went to the library.

CourtneyB,

Have you tried the Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot series? It is a chapter book but has only a few sentences per page, has a picture on every page, and has a cool flip-o-rama section in every book. Each book involves Ricky (a mouse) and his best friend (a giant, good-hearted robot that Ricky meets in the first book) battling a different evil guy from a different planet trying to take over earth (a totally silly evil guy). The "confrontations" in the flip-o-rama sections are mostly foot-stomping and head-bopping, although there is an occasional punch (I hate violence in books, but this is really tame cartoon stuff). There is very little tension in the books and they mostly are just good clean fun. Both my boys loved them and were a good gateway to chapter books without a ton of words.

He has actually read a little of a Ricky Ricotta book at swimming. I wonder what happened to the book, hmm...

We have found a winner though. While in Idaho this last week we bought the first Franny K Stein book - Lunch Walks Among Us. In less than an hour he had it all read!! We had to buy the next two while there as well, and he's in bed reading the 2nd one now.
Not only did he read the first book but he had to show Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma, Grammy, Grampy, and his Aunt and Uncle his new book that he loved.

He is in a mad science class at school and Franny is a mad scientist so it just caught his attention I think. Lots of pictures throughout the book helped too.

Franny K Stein was exactly what turned my son on to reading for fun! I think there are 7 books now so that should keep him busy for... oh... three days :-) Shortly after that, my son fell in love with the Magic Pickle series. That was enough to make him a reader for sure!