My older son is 4.5 years and an avid reader. Currently, the only books he will read are ones with pictures in them. If there are no pictures, he won’t touch the book - even if it is a story he likes. For instance, he really likes the story “Rio” but when I found him the story in a novel form, he didn’t want me to buy the book.
He can read books like the original Thomas and Friends stories written by Rev W Awdry (not the dumb-down versions that seem to be cropping up in greater quantities of late) and the National Geographic Dinopedia so I am confident that he is ready to transition to a novel but I just don’t know how to introduce a book without pictures to him.
Sounds like you are doing a number of the things I would do already, but I’ll list some of them anyway.
Read novels with no pictures to your son and if he enjoys them leave them lying around so he can try reading them - or even dont finish the story, just read a few chapters so he can carry on
Boys like non fiction often more than girls do and are less keen than girls to read novels so make sure he has a wide range of non fiction books about topics that interest him - these are likely to have pictures and that is fine, just keep moviung towards books with smaller print and fewer pictures then
Use early chapter books - these usually have black and white pictures in them and not quite on every page and are an intermediate step to books with no pictures. They are also made for beginner readers.
Let him read as many picture books as he likes as he will move past this stage and he is still reading - rather that than lose his interest in reading
The most important though is the first step - reading longer books to him with no pictures.
Sounds like he is doing great!
I think this is a security thing that all children go through. With my son, I would let him choose any book he wanted to read before bed and randomly throughout the day, but at least once daily I would have a time when he would read to me outloud and I would choose the book.
I think we started with something like the original Winnie the Pooh books or the Ramona and Beezus books. If your son is really uncomfortable try switching off pages (or paragraphs). Then slowly move up the difficulty. Also if your son gets into some series that might help. My son started off reading “Commander Toad” (lots of pictures but advanced words) and then moved onto “Nate the Great” and “Cam Jansen” from there his interest in detective books was piqued and he was willing to tackle more advanced books like the “Boxcar Children” and Secrets of Droon".
All of these series he just reads by himself. Now for his reading to me he is doing Harry Potter, Wizard of Oz, Burgess Bird book for children, etc…
So use the reading with you to pique interest and build confidence and during his read to himself times just let him enjoy and you will see him start to choose harder books.
Thanks Linzy and Tanikit for the terrific suggestions! We’re making some headway! He recently read a chapter book (didn’t know that this is what you call them) - The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl (love his books when I was a child!) He wasn’t keen to read it at first because the pictures weren’t “colourful” but he eventually tried it with his Dad - they read one page each. Once he got into the book, he wanted to continue reading to find out what happened and finished reading the rest of the book himself. He got through it so fast that his Dad wondered whether he was really reading it but when queried, he could tell us what happened in the story so I guess he did read it!
I just got him Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (what child doesn’t want to hear a story about chocolate?). The irony was that I had to negotiate it with him and agreed to buy him another dino book (by dorling kindersley) if he would agree to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with me. I didn’t really mind because it was a win-win for me - he adds another non-fiction book to his collection and he reads a novel with me - what mother would argue against that?
I’m trying to think of a series to get him started on because I’m sure that if he likes it, he will start tracking down all the other books (as he usually does - Thomas and Friends, Dr Seuss, Mr Men, Berenstain Bears, and anything about dinosaurs). So we will definitely check out the book series you listed - we have Harry Potter (hubby and I read it) and he has read part of the original Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.
My son loved The LIttle House on the Prairie books. At first thought, they may seem girlie, but since they deal with pioneer life, they were very exciting. We read all 7 or 9 books together and he really enjoyed them. We are currently reading Charlotte’s Web, such a great book. We just finished reading Stuart Little. I offered that he could watch the movie after we finished the book and he liked that idea, although he liked the book better. It was nice because he was able to compare and contrast between the book and the movie. I also like the Children’s Illustrated Classics that have a picture on every other page. These are nice for transitioning to chapter books with few or no pictures.
I would give the Step into Reading books level 5 a try. These are chapter books with pictures in them. I would start with those and then ease your way into books that have black and white pictures , then into chapter books with little to no pictures.
I would think that this would be more of an easier progression. This is what I’ve done with my older children and what I plan on doing with my youngest. Going this route made for a much easier transition for sure into books like Little House on the Prairie or Ramona and Beezus.
Plus I agree too. Read lots of chapter books to him as well.
Thanks Tracy! I will look for those. We have a few Level 3 books from Step into Reading and he reads those easily. I bought them more for the stories and subjects because there were a few titles that interested him.
Tonight, he started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and so far so good. I know that if he gets into the story, he’ll like it. For instance, even though he initially resisted The Magic Finger, once he started reading it, he couldn’t stop. Now he likes the story and enjoys reading it again.