Finding high interest / low reading level books

January 29, 2016 8:46 PM

Does anyone have any suggestions for what books I could get for this student?

I have a student I am working with that has begun to unravel his reading difficulties and make progress with his reading ability. I teach grade 3 and the books in my class are too difficult for a beginning reader. I have ordered through the Scholastic orders before and they can sometimes be hit and miss as to interest and reading level.

My frustration is that anything he might be interested in is too difficult and anything he can read is boring as tar to him.

Does anyone have good suggestions for someone who is just beginning to be able to read but is around 7 years old?

posted by snowysoul to Education (13 answers total)

Have you looked at the DK Readers? They have a Star Wars series, LEGO, lots of science, even pro wrestling. They sell them at Barnes and Noble and I've also seen sets at Costco. They are very reasonably priced, and they levels go from 1 (very very basic, with mostly Dolch-type words) to 4.

I have given them to a kiddo in my life who is also a third grader and who struggles a great deal with reading. They are on "cool" enough topics to be engaging, and they don't look super "young" either. I would prefer if they didn't have a giant label saying "Level 1" etc. on the front, but that could conceivably be covered if you thought it would be a source of embarrassment.
posted by charmcityblues at 8:56 PM on January 29, 2016

Response by poster: Charmcityblues suggested some interesting books but according to Amazon they would likely be too hard for him. The Lexile measurement for these books is between 450 and 650. This particular child would be at lexile level BR-70.

Here is the chart I use to measure student reading.
The student in question is still at level AA or level A by my reckoning.
posted by snowysoul at 9:14 PM on January 29, 2016

The Dragon Masters series, and others from Scholastic's Branches collection.
posted by ellenaim at 10:43 PM on January 29, 2016

I'm not sure if they are simple enough but Jean Marzollo wrote some great fantasy adventure stories at the easy reader level. Red Sun Girl and Blue Sun Ben were great and Jed's Junior Space Patrol was a favorite at our house although judging by the title alone, your reader might need help with some of those words. Red Sun Girl and Blue Sun Ben are out of print but might be available from a public library (that's we found them)
posted by metahawk at 11:17 PM on January 29, 2016

To find interesting, age appropriate materials for his level, you might have better luck looking at books for English Language Learners ("graded readers") for his age group.

Also, if you can give him a book with an accompanying audio version, he can listen to a story that's at a higher level and read along while he listens. This has been shown to improve reading speed and accuracy in kids with reading difficulties.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:36 AM on January 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

Do you have a school library? The school librarian should either already have them or can order them. You can also create you own books (or have your students create books with photos and words - not specifying it is for him of course). Non-fiction books may grab him, my some was not reading at school at seven because the books at school were so boring and didactic. You should also be working with your special education department if you feel the difficulties may need strategies you are unaware of (and the waitlist for test can be long so getting him on a list early may help).

ALL of my kids did not read at seven, not they are all advanced readers, and some people (I'm one of them) feel that in North America reading is pushed before children are developmentally ready. For my son, who would not read at school, we played Minecraft (on the Aporkalypes server) and the chats are where he showed me he could read/write at a level far above what the teachers were testing him at. Is there something similar you can "hook" your student with?

Does your school have a weird grade/age system? In my system Grade One is aged six or seven, in the Third Grade they are eight or nine. Is he younger than his peers?
posted by saucysault at 4:18 AM on January 30, 2016

I would do Fly Guy ( doesnt look like a picture book and has chapters) the new nonfiction ones are much harder but the originals .

BR-70 is really low though, you might be best off with National Geographic sight word readers (these are available through the Dcholastic flyers) memail me if you need help finding them.

Scholastic has done a lot of sight word and phonics readers in popular sets so you might be able to find Star Wars or Disney characters in them. They also have sight word games. That is were I would start.
posted by aetg at 7:11 AM on January 30, 2016

Best answer: Ok, I was looking more at the Scholastic reading club flyers.

It looks like the Star Wars phonics books start a little too high, but the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books start at a BR. If you sign up for the club you can search any level of flyer, not just one specific one. For example, the Star Wars books and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle books I'm referencing are in the Preschool and Kindergarten February Flyer.

These flyers also have some of those sight word games I was referencing.

This may be what I did all afternoon yesterday (yes I am a school librarian.)

Ignore my previous recommendation for Fly Guy, it is too high for someone at BR stage.


Thank you for looking for books that this student will like!
posted by aetg at 7:45 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Librarians have access to various searchable book databases that include information like theme, topic, and reading level. Novelist is one that I know of (I don't know the specific searchable fields, though).

If your school librarian doesn't have access to a good one, maybe a local librarian does? Then, inter-library loan is usually an option.

Have you asked what your student is interested in? Space, cats, the plants he sees outside, different countries, how kids lived in castles, etc? (I know, you're probably already taking this into account, but I mention it to cover all bases since you didn't mention it).
posted by amtho at 8:05 AM on January 30, 2016

My oldest started reading at age 7. What you need for this child is illustrated works above his grade level.

Calvin and Hobbes is likely to be a hit. Beyond that, go to the librarian and ask for illustrated books above his grade level.

This helps because the illustrations help bridge the gap between his reading level and interest level. Illustrated works helped my son figure out oddball words like "knight" that aren't pronounced the way they look like they would be.

Illustrated works typically have a higher level of vocabulary than chapter books.

You could also go to Hoagies Gifted page (online) and check their lists of recommended books for easily bored kids.
posted by Michele in California at 11:08 AM on January 30, 2016

When I thought a bit more about audio read-alongs, I remembered Tumble Books. They're a database of kids' ebooks with accompanying narration. AFAIK all Canadian public libraries have access.

(As an aside: like saucysault mentioned, this reading level can be developmentally appropriate for a 7 year old, and usually he'd be in a Grade One class (maybe Grade 2 depending on when his birthday is) with other beginning readers. I'm curious--is there a particular reason he's in a Grade 3 class at this age?)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:10 PM on January 30, 2016

Look at Capstone Publishing, they have a wide selection of leveled books and hi-lo readers. You should also look at getting a kindergarten or first grade level Scholastic Magazine subscription- it actually doesn't have the grade level on it, and you would get new content with activities each week. You may also think about buying a subscription for Reading a-z- I know you linked to their reading level chart- but they have books you can print. You also might want to have your student try Starfall- it's a very popular website that helps children learn to read.
posted by momochan at 6:25 PM on January 30, 2016

Response by poster: Thank you for all the great answers!

Computers are usually pretty busy at our school, though I do use starfall and raz-kids, along with reading a-z print outs. I would ideally like to get him something that doesn't stand out such as pulling out a bunch of printed out books just for him.

I will have to look into the ninja turtles idea and National Geographic readers. He is also into vehicles like quads and motorcycles, and he is very into minecraft so you have all sparked some great ideas, I can't pick a best answer for this one since they are all excellent.
posted by snowysoul at 10:10 PM on January 30, 2016