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The 3 Types of Books for Beginning Readers (For Kids of All Ages!)

Do you struggle to know what books would be a good fit for your kids learning to read? Do you have an older child who is starting to read, but you struggle to find books that are just right and engaging for them? I’m here to help! There are THREE types of books your budding reader needs to engage with: books that they can read (and I use the word “read” loosely here as you will see later on in this post), books that contain skills that they are CURRENTLY learning, and books that are of high interest but highly challenging for them to read independently. Let’s take a look at what this all means.

The 3 Types of Books for Beginning Readers

1. Independent Books

The first type of books we will dive into are independent-level books. These are the books that your child can read independently without any help. Here is how you know your child can read a book independently:

  • The child can read the book with 95-100% accuracy
  • They can read it with ease and understanding

These books are essential as they build your child’s confidence in reading and are enjoyable for your child, as they are not labor-intensive. Kids can read these books during quiet time, in the car, at independent playtime, or at any time!

2. Instructional Books

The second type of book your reader needs to engage with is instructional books. These books help them practice a new skill, such as a new phonic rule, a new sight word, new vocabulary, or a new comprehension strategy (such as inferring). The child can often read a significant amount of the book, but needs an active adult there to help guide and instruct them as they acquire the new skill. It is helpful for kids to read these books with an adult (I suggest adding it to your bedtime routine).

3. High-Interest, Big Stretch Books

Many people call it good after the first two books, but there is a third type of book, and it’s important to all kids learning to read, but absolutely NECESSARY for older kids learning to read. These are high-interest, BIG stretch books (also often called “frustration level” books). These books are above the child’s reading abilities, but the child is highly interested in reading them. These books CAN be read aloud to the child by a loving adult, listened to on an audiobook or device, or attempted to be read with support (or even on their own – controversial, I know!) The reasons we want to support our children reading these types of books are numerous. The first is: nothing takes away the joy and the grit to learn to read like telling a kid they can’t read a book. Read that again if you need to. Never tell a child not to read something. 

Secondly, these books will help students build vocabulary, which is *imperative* to becoming a better reader. There is an effect in reading called the Matthew Effect, and it is based on the idea that the more you read, the more you are exposed to a wider range of words than those who read less. The more words you know, the easier reading becomes, thus making you read more and become a better reader. Simply put, kids who read often get better at reading. 

Thirdly, listening to a book read fluently helps kids to read fluently (especially if they are following along with their own copy of the book). 

Fourthly, older kids need to “save face” in front of their peers. Nothing will kill the willingness to try to learn to read than being made fun of for not knowing how to read. Listening to and attempting to read the same books as their peers allows them to talk about the books with their peers and seem on the same “level” as them. 

Finally, when kids are highly motivated by a book, they will often push themselves to read above their level! There is research to back this up. 

What do these books look like at each stage of learning to read? Let’s take a look!

Independent Books for Beginning Readers

First off, you may be asking, “How can my child have books they can read on their own when they are just beginning their reading journey?” The short answer is, “Your child has started their reading journey loooong before learning letters and their sounds.” This age group is *typically* ages 2-5. But we know that this may not be the case for all. If you are JUST starting at the very beginning of the reading journey with your child, this is the section for you.

Beginning readers can independently “read” books in two ways. They can “read the pictures” of both wordless picture books and of new picture books they encounter. They can also retell familiar picture books from their memory and the pictures.

You may be asking yourself if this fits the criteria of independent books? Well, let’s take a look at the criteria.

  • Is your child able to “read” these books with ease and understanding? 

Answer: Yes! 

  • Can your child read these picture books with 95-100% accuracy? 

Answer: For wordless picture books and familiar books: ABSOLUTELY! However, while they may be fairly accurate in “reading” pictures of unfamiliar books, they probably (definitely) won’t hit 95-100% accuracy of the words on the page. However, for this level, that is A-OK! This stage is about growing your child’s confidence, supporting their understanding of story structure, and practicing book-handling skills. 

Independent Book Examples
Retelling Familiar Books

These are independent books because the child has heard the story many times before and read it by using their memory, pictures, and even repetitive patterns to reread. The books in this category are going to be customized to the individual child and family. The books in this category are going to be the books that you have read 1,000 4,762,027 times to your child. Below are a few common ones.

Examples:

  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. 
  • Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin Jr. (Many of Bill Martin Jr.’s books will fit this)
  • We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
  • The House that Jack Built 
  • The Gingerbread Man 
  • If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
  • Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
  • Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin and James Dean
  • Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
  • Little Blue Truck by Alice Sertle
  • Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems (Series)
Wordless Picture Books

When I was a young teacher, I would see books with a medal on the cover, grab them and excitedly flip through them, only to quickly be greatly disappointed by the lack of words in the book. However, as I have become older and much, much wiser (;-)), I have found the true value in wordless picture books and the power and place they have in the world of literacy and storytelling. Now, wordless picture books can be a bit of a misnomer, as sometimes these books have one or two words. The exact title should be: Wordless Picture Books and Almost Wordless Picture Books, but as you can see, that’s a bit tedious, so we play a little fast and loose with the title. So without further ado…

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Wordless Picture Books For Younger Kids (approximately 2-6):

Wordless Picture Books for Older Kids (approximately 7 and up):

Graphic Novels

Many kids, especially older ones, can also read simple graphic novels independently as they provide a lot of picture support. Some simple graphic novels are listed below.

Graphic Novels:

Decodable Books with Previous Taught Skills

Decodable books that have been previously taught are also a great independent book. If your child has already mastered short vowel words (CVC words), then they would be able to read decodable books focused on short vowels independently. Decodable book recommendations are covered in the Instructional Books for Beginning Readers section.

Unfamiliar Picture Books

I won’t include recommendations for this section, as ANY picture book will do. As some of my readers know, I try to have a weekly theme with my little ones to help build connections and background knowledge (but that’s a blog post for another day). Every week, I gather books from my personal library and check out books from the city library that support the theme we are learning about. On the way home from picking up our library holds, my daughter will always ask, “Can I look at the books on the way home?” Never one to tell her she CAN’T engage with a book, I always allow her to do so. Over time, when I would pick a book out of the themed library pile to read to her, she would say, “Oh, I read that one. It’s funny when ______ happened.” At first, I was confused and would ask her if her dad read it to her, but I quickly realized that she meant when she “read” the book in the car by looking at the pictures. I loved that she saw herself as a reader in this way, and she was often very accurate in her retelling of the book based on the pictures. It was *chef’s kiss* perfect (and so natural).

Instructional Books for Beginning Readers

If my child is a beginning reader, can they even have an instructional level? Yes! Beginning readers’ instructional books will be beginning phonics/decodable books. For this type of book, find a good beginning decodable book series that follows a systematic phonics sequence. Often, these books will start with short vowel words such as hat, rat, cat, had, and have few irregularly spelled sight words.

Instructional Book Examples:

For younger kids (approximately 2-6):

For older kids (approximately 7 and up):

High Interest, Big Stretch Books for Beginning Readers

Young kids starting to read need, need, NEED to be read picture books and even appropriate chapter books and listen to books on tape, CD, story players (such as Yoto or TonieBox), audiobooks, or a story app. As I have said before, listening to books allows kids to grow vocabulary and background knowledge, hear fluent reading, practice comprehension, and, of course, grow their love of books! This is more imperative for older kids as they need to feel on the same level as their peers and feel included.

High Interest, Big Stretch Book Examples
Listening Books

For Younger Kids (approximately 2-6)

For Older Kids (approximately 7 and up):

  • The Wild Robot Series by Peter Brown
  • The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
  • Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
  • Ramona series by Beverly Cleary
  • How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
  • Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
  • The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
  • Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
  • Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo 
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
  • Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
  • Frindle by Andrew Clements
  • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White 
  • Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland
Graphic Novels

Graphic novel editions of popular novels are a great way for older, struggling readers to access the same stories that their peers are reading. If their peers are reading Wings of Fire or the Babysitter Club series, they can read the same graphic novel editions, and while it will be challenging, they will have graphics to support their reading. Then, they will know the context when their peers are talking about these books.

Any Book that Motivates

When I was actively teaching in the classroom, I often saw struggling readers reach for a beloved book I had previously read aloud to them. I would hear them struggle their way through reading it because they loved it so much. Struggling older kids who want to read the popular books or books they have heard and loved will work hard to do so. Do not underestimate the power of motivation.

Studies in literacy motivation and engagement suggest that children will attempt more challenging books if they are highly interested. One finding of these studies found that kids who enjoy reading tend to be motivated to read more, leading to greater skill improvement (Stanovich, 1986). In 2000, Guthrie and Wigfield found that motivated readers are more persistent and take on greater reading challenges. Also, children comprehend better when they are personally interested in the material (Schiefele et al. 2012).

If a child is passionate about a topic or a book series, they will often push themselves beyond their instructional level, even if the book is difficult!

Final Thoughts

I encourage you to support your child’s reading journey by reading complex books to them at any age, supplying access to books they can retell or read the pictures, and procuring books that will focus on their current skill level. Remind your child that no book is off limits to them because you will read it to them, find an audio version, or encourage them to work through it by looking at the pictures. Go build those readers!

Pin with 4 Books for Beginning Readers as the background:

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