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Easy Reader Books That Are Actually Easy

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Do you have an emerging reader? Have you ever noticed how many of the so-called easy reader books are not actually easy? My 5 year old is currently deep in the beginning stages of reading books. Whereas with my early reading oldest child, I was concerned about finding advanced books with subjects appropriate for a 4 year old, now I am looking for easy readers which are actually easy.

Easy reader books and series for kids learning to read. These are actually easy.

To start with, I’ve noticed that all publishers have different standards for levels! Plus, even within the same publisher and level the degree of difficulty can vary. And forget about easy readers with licensed characters. Those are the worst. My son chose a Star Wars level 1 book and it included words like “shoulder”, “symbol” and “organization”. Um, those are not beginning-to-read words.  I want books that will build my son’s confidence in his ability to read, not frustrate him!

More: Click here for a list of easy readers that won’t make you want to poke your eyes out.

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So, I have been on the hunt for easy books. It’s a painstaking process, but I hope you find this list useful for your beginning reader. (Note: all book titles and covers are affiliate links.)

The Easiest Easy Reader Books


Ball. This is one word book. Now you may be asking yourself what is the purpose of reading books with only one word. One word: Confidence. After New Kid read this book he had a huge grin on his face, not just because the book was amusing, with it’s comic book-type layout, but because he felt a sense of accomplishment. Learning to read is not just about decoding letters and sentences. The word, “ball” is used to express emotion, convey action and reveal character. By reading this book, kids synthesize text, story, illustration and understand that words convey pathos, climax, and dénouement. This is crucial for reading comprehension.


Hug. A baby gorilla is searching for his mom, using a single word, “hug”. Like Ball (see above) the single word is important, and even a single word can convey dramatic structure and emotions. The more beginning readers can feel connected with a story, they more likely they are to read it. Also included are the words, “Bobo” and “Mommy.”


Orange Pear Apple Bear. Like Ball and Hug, this isn’t necessarily meant as an easy reader, but I used it as such. Emily Gravett is a favorite author of ours and this book uses the same 4 words in different sequences until the end, when a 5th word, “There!” is used. I like that my son could use the illustrations to decode words he didn’t recognize (orange, pear) and he had to pay attention to read them in the correct order on each page. My son can see the same word over and over and still need help with it. In this case, he had to figure out “pear” repeatedly and that was good practice for him. Plus, the book is just plain funny and clever.


The Flip-a-Word books are not so much story books but an exercise in recognizing word family patterns. Each book includes three word families. For example Quack Shack, looks at -ack, -ick, and -ock words. As kids flip the pages, they see the same pattern revealed in a page cut out. At the end of each section the words are reinforced through simple phrases. Some of the pairings are a little silly, which my son loves.


Up, Tall and High is another book with a very limited vocabulary. The book consists of three stories in which birds humorously contemplate three states of being (three guesses!). Fold out pages add extra interest and this book is also great for reading aloud to toddlers and preschoolers. We’ve also been using Ethan Long’s Clara and Clem books from Penguin’s Young Reader series.


Cat the Cat, Who Is That? I love this series from Mo Willems. There is something so charming about the repetition. Only Willems can make a story so simple (saying hi to a slew of animals with names like “Duck the duck” and “Fish the fish”) yet still bring a smile.

Easy Reader Books – A Slight Step Up


See Me Run. Meisel has two “I Like to Read” about dogs going about their doggy business. Very simple words and lots of repetition made this a good choice for my son who balks at words more than four letters. There is action, a bit of suspense (what will the dogs dig up?) and a lot of humor that kept him interested. He didn’t even try and get me to take over reading after 2 pages.


More so than most publishers, I find Harper-Collins’ “I Can Read” books at the “Shared My First Reading” level, the most reliable source of appropriately leveled books for my emerging reader. I never read Biscuit with my older son and sort of rolled my eyes at the thought. Do not make not the same judgmental mistake as I did! They have great repetition and words that kids can actually sound out.


Elephant & Piggie. These books are so popular I hardly need go over any plot points with you. Most parents I talk to started out reading Willems books about Gerald the Elephant and Piggie aloud to their preschoolers, but they are actually written to be easy readers. (The same phenomenon applies to Seuss, have you noticed? Although I prefer Willems a gazillion times to Seuss.) I like that the books are longer than other typical earlier readers, although the text is nice and sparse so pages go quickly. Once your kid is hooked on Elephant and Piggie there are at least 20 more to keep him reading.


Mittens series. Mittens is the feline equivalent of Biscuit (see above). Each book has a bit of a mystery: where is Max? what’s that noise, etc. that encourages my son to keep reading and brings a smile to his face when he comes to the answer or can predict ahead of time what it is. There are a few longer words that he needs help with like “scratching” but since the mystery keeps him going, he doesn’t get frustrated.


What Will Fat Cat Sit On? A comment on this post below reminded me that I had meant to put at least one Jan Thomas books on this list. These books are absolutely hilarious for read aloud storytime, but their simple, rhyming text made them terrific early reader books, too. Plus, they are super duper funny!
Do you have an emerging reader? What books do you find useful?

More easy reader book lists:

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Comments

    • As a Kindergarten teacher, I too am always searching for REALLY easy readers. On of my favorites from a while back, that I didn’t see on your quick list is: Time for Bed, the Babysitter Said by Peggy Perry Anderson. And a favorite wordless: Good Dog, Carl. More recently, you can trust the Scholastic Guided Science Readers that are leveled A-D. These are really nice, easy non-fiction.

      Reply

  2. I completely understand your frustration with “easy” readers. I probably write a rant about them every year – if only the publishers would listen!

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    • I know! I suspect they make a lot of money off those licensed character readers and they are just so awful!

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  3. To me the mark of a great children’s book is one I can’t wait to read even if my kids aren’t around. I love to get my hands on a new Elephant and Piggie book! Great collection of books, as always!

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  4. I am in the same situation as you with an older advanced reader and a younger one finding it more difficult. I loved Bob Books for my daughter but my son thinks they are too babyish for him (and of course he would since he is 6 and she was 4). My son likes nonfiction and I find that level 1 nonfiction readers are the worst offenders of being too advanced.

    These are great suggestion. My son really like the Elephant and Piggy series. Definitely going to look out for See Me Run!

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  5. Love Elephant and Piggie books! My first graders also like Noodles the
    Dog books. And check out Jan Thomas’ books. They are hysterical!

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    • I totally meant to put Jan Thomas’ books on the list!! I may have to add it in. Thanks! Thomas’ books are soooo funny!

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  6. Thanks for the list! I’ve been helping my 4.5 year old read Hop on Pop a few pages a day. We just got the Tug the Pup series and he’s been able to read the first few books entirely by himself. It’s so great. He really just started reading sentences about a week ago. Before that he’d forget the first word of a three word sentence by the time he sounded out the last word and have to start over. Now that he’s picking it up, we’ll definitely be needing some more easy readers.

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  7. Erica – this is a FANTASTIC list. Really. I can’t tell you how frustrated I’ve been with “easy” readers that you actually can’t read unless you’re a fairly accomplished reader. So frustrating! I totally agree with you about one-word stories. Not only do they build confidence but they teach kids how to read expressively. This is the stage my Max is at with his reading right now, so I’m going to be referring to this list often.

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  11. My son will be reading soon, and I teach reading intervention, so I am very conscious of what can make a book hard. We like Leslie Patricelli’s books, such as Higher, Higher, and Yes Yes, No No. Jeff Mack’s Good News, Bad News and Aha! have a similar simplistic few words and great pictures. My son also loves No, David! and other David books. He is at the memorizing stage, and has been “reading” David Gets In Trouble to anyone who will listen. Perhaps reading words like “attention” and “accident” will be hard for a decoder, but the illustrations and other clues help out. Not sure if it would count as a “classic” series, but I do love James Marshall’s Fox books, and more importantly, my 4th graders enjoy them, too.

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    • Thanks for your comment, Sarah! Patricelli and Mack would have been great additions to the list! I looove Good News Bad News! I do like the Fox books, but my son is not quite ready for them.

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  13. Thanks so much for this! My daughter is at just this stage. And she doesn’t like to do anything if she’s not going to do it right the first time. (ie – won’t sing a song unless she knows all the words). So I’m thrilled to be able to find her books to build that confidence!!

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  15. I too face that same search of looking for books my younger daughter (4 1/2) can read and not feel overwhelmed and frustrated with. She likes the Flip-a-word books and See Me Run. I wanted to suggest another series she really likes and that is the We Both Read series. It formatted like a picture book but has most of the text on the parent page and then a couple words on the kid page for them to read. They have fiction, classic stories and non-fiction in different levels.

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    • Thanks for the link to a great list! I’ve been noticing how many books I like have that award on them, but hadn’t thought to look up others.

      I also recommend Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka as a fun early reader that emphasizes expression.

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    • I love using the Geisel list to find books! A few of these are on that list, and also some others that I am looking forward to my son being able to read.

      Reply

  17. I am a school librarian, formerly a kindergarten teacher, and you are so right about so-called easy readers. I often gave that talk to parents at parent-teacher conferences in kindergarten. This is an awesome list. Thanks.

    Reply

  18. This is a fantastic list. We love the Sandra Boynton Board Books. There is a simple book called “Where’s the Fish” the really boosted my daughter’s confidence early on. The Bob Books were some of the very first books she read, too. Hopping along the Kid Lit Blog Hop. Have a paw-riffic rest of the week.

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  21. I definitely have been frustrated looking for easy reader books for my 4 year old. My mother in law bought him a couple of the Monster’s Inc. and Bearenstain Bears ones, but holy cow they are NOT easy, like you said! Not too long ago I found out about the Elephant & Pig books and bought “We are in a Book” — LOVE it!! Thank you for the rest of this list! Going to check them all out! (Especially Biscuit..ha!)

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  22. Love this list! My son also loves Moo! It’s a rather silly one word book and he just giggled through it, read it to his brothers, read it to his father… it was great!

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  23. It IS hard to find easy readers that new readers can actually read by themselves! Thanks for sharing your great list at the Kid Lit Blog Hop! We loved Frog in Clogs, Cat at Bat and the Good Bad Cat to add to your list.

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  24. This is a great post because it is so true! Most easy readers are much too wordy and do not help build word families or sight words. It’s great when you can find easy readers that emergent readers can tackle and yet they are still good books.

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  25. Thanks again for a fabulous list. I checked out many of the above and read all to my 3 and 5 year old, and they both love to read back to me. Not only a great list for getting little ones to read but also to build a little confidence. The 3 year old was beaming when she could read the word “ball” even though she’s a long way from reading 🙂
    Side note, have you read Dragons Love Tacos? My son was terrified of the idea that an animal can breathe fire, no matter how many times I told him they don’t exist. This took the idea to a whole new level, and now he laughs at dragons (and every time I pour hot sauce on my tacos) :)Thought I’d get the word out there to any other parents in my position!

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  26. Thanks so much for taking the time to write this! My so. Is not yet two but he loves books, and I want to encourage this, rather than knock his confidence. Definitely pinning this for later!

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  27. Just wanted to say thank you so much for the guidance – my 5 year old is starting to read but the furthest I’ve gotten are the Bob book series (which have been great) but I really needed to upgrade his book selections and this list was SUPER helpful! Bonus: almost all of them were at our local library!

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    • So glad the list was useful, Ryann. We just discovered a new series from Chris Rashka, too “Moosey Moose”.

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  28. Thanks so much for this list, hopefully I’ll be able to find some of them in the UK.

    For UK readers, and also in the US, the Usborne First Reading series are fantastic. I particularly like the concept of the first few books: Pirate Pat, Double Trouble and Captain Mac, where they have a section of text that tells the story read by the parent and then there are a few simple words for the very early reader to read. For example, in Pirate Pat, we read a simple rhyming passage about sitting in Grandma’s kitchen when we hear a [read by child]: ‘tap, tap, tap”. It allowed my young, able, but very low interest/confidence, reader to enjoy a story while also being able to read his parts himself. Usborne are also pretty good at making readers genuinely appropriate to the age range.

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  30. Thank you for this list! I have also noticed the wide range of emergent reader book “levels”. Hard to find something at their level that will also hold their interest.

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  31. Thanks the list! I am going to check some of these out. I had that problem with my first one with many of the first readers and even pre-readers were not simple enough. I am now at that point with the middle child.

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  32. Thank you so much for this list! The readers my kindergardener brings home from school are gibberish and I can see why he doesn’t find them engaging. So I ordered level 1 readers for Star Wars, Pete the Cat, and Charlie the Ranch Dog…whoever thought those were beginners can’t have any kind of an education background. Especially the Star Wars! So I’ve ordered most of the first part of your list. I like the “Sight Word Readers” by Creative Teaching Press too for confidence building. Most of the words are on my son’s sight word or word family lists from kindergarden. This list of “real books” is fantastic, though. And we read aloud Rhyming Dust Bunnies already and he thinks it is hilarious.

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  33. Thank you for your lists! I’m a teacher. I love teaching. But after the 20th repetition of “My juice. My cup. My hat. My ball…” I want to rip my ears off. I try to mix in some real books as my kids begin to take off and it is so much easier!

    There’s also a Clifford Phonics Box set that is great. I went through and colored the name words and my kids can read pretty much every other word in the books. They love them, and I love that there is a variety!

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  34. Thank you for this list! I have a 4 year old who is learning to read. He’s currently on level 2 of a set of “Teach Your Child To Read” books but I believe it’s not a true level 2. Right now I haven’t found a single level 1 book that he can read by himself. He loves Biscuit books. We have several that he can read cover to cover with very minimal help. I found your statement about level difficulty true. As I said, he loves Biscuit and can read by himself. However, Pete the Cat, which is on the same reading level, he can’t even touch! I would have to help him with every other word and what would be the point of that? I think our next books to try will be Elephant and Piggie!!

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  35. We loved Fun with Ed and Fred by Kevin Bolger. It’s a bit long, so I would alternate reading pages with my son. Hilarious!

    We also liked some of the Usborne books by Phil Roxbee Cox – we started with Fat Cat on a Mat. The book has fold out pages which add some interest. Again, it’s a bit long for my son to get through on his own, so we alternate reading.

    I love your list – I’m going to check some new ones out of the library right away!

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  36. Thank you! I agree the character books are terrible. They use an image for Jake, but my kid is supposed to read Geyser Gulch!? Ugh. Thanks for this list!!

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  39. Thank you for this list – a starting point of taking my child who said, “I DON’T WANT TO LEARN TO READ!” from an unhappy and resistant reader to a confident and happy reader!

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  40. Hi, I’m a teacher in Australia and I loved this list. “Where is the green sheep?” Is also a great choice. It is very repetitive and the pictures are very supportive for the other words.

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  41. We have loved working our way through your easy reader list! Thank you for saving us from the horror of mainstream easy reader books. We’ve been fortunate to find most of your reccomendations in our library system. Yesterday we found hardback compilations of the Biscuit and Penny I Can Read books in the bargain section of B&N and thanks to you I knew to scoop them up!

    Reply

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