BES Library
Tips for Children Who Struggle with Reading
Choose books that match the reading level of your child.
Any books that are higher than your child's reading
level may not interest them.
Most children's books indicate what age group they're for,
but another way to find out
is to ask your child to read the first few pages of a
book out loud. If your child
makes too many mistakes, it might be too hard for him or her to read.
Try children's magazines
It might be too much to expect your child to read a
whole book; all those pages
might intimidate your child. Children's magazines, on
he other hand, might make
a less daunting alternative. There are many niche children's
magazines that cater
to various interests, such as science or story-telling. Find
one what your child likes most;
his or her attention span is less likely to
wander off if the topic is relevant to your child's interest.
Read with your child
Keep your child's attention span in check by reading
with him or her. Take turns
reading paragraphs or pages,
depending on the length of the material or
your child's attention span. If your
child's eyes keep wandering off, read
using the help of a bookmark,
or trace the wordswith a pointer to help
your child focus.
Read every day
Most parents save reading for bedtime, but your
child might be too comfortable
and sleepy to give reading her
best effort at the end of the day. Instead, save
the reading for after dinner and read at the same time every day,
especially if you're finishing a book.
To help your child retain information,
have him or her explain what just happened,
and write review notes together.
Use audio books
Your child might stay more focused if he or she hears
the words while reading. Try finding an audio
tape for the book you have, or
record the reading material during your
spare time so you can play it
during the next reading session. You can also play the recording in
the car on the way to school; this
can help your child ace a test on the reading material in question.
Read the Comics
Reading the funny pages is a great way to start reading,
it shows the left to right direction needed for reading.
Looking at pictures and showing the action,
lets a child understand there's
a point to the story. It can be short enough
for a beginning reader to not get
overwhelmed. And having fun is what reading is all about.
You want your child to have a life-long love of reading.
Amazon's Top 100 Children's Books to Read in a lifetime
The 60s kids classic
Inspiring readers for centuries
Everyone has bad days
Go down the rabbit hole
Mixed-up housekeeper
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Modern family
The Classic Treasury of Aesop's Fables by Don Daily
A spirited young woman
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
The ultimate parenting story
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The angst of adolescence
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
A mischevious rabbit
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson
Best friends
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
For animal lovers
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume
Friendship and loss
Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales (Peter Rabbit) by Beatrix Potter
Monkey business
Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace
Vintage Roald Dahl
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Timeless tale
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
Alphabet fun
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
It's raining…food
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
A ghostly story
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The lovable bear
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
Gods and goddesses
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
For reluctant readers
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
One funny bird
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Seuss classics
Corduroy by Don Freeman
A child's first detective story
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire
A story of immigration in the 1930s
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Museum mystery
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
First published in 1947
Dr. Seuss's Beginner Book Collection by Dr. Seuss
Bedtime for the building-obsessed
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Favorite fairy tales
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
A father's love
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Imagination opens doors
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
A budding journalist
Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
Meet the boy wizard
Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm
Unusual punishment
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
Alone on an island
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
A game comes to life
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Childhood on the frontier
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
The March sisters
Holes by Louis Sachar
Rhyming reassurance
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Twelve little girls
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
A garden of ducks
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The boy who runs
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Old-fashioned hard work
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Performing pets
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Helping your neighbor
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Magical cures for bad habits
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Courage and independence
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Precocious pig
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
A blankie turned hankie
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
A Great Lakes journey
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
First touch and feel book
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Never-ending childhood
Olivia by Ian Falconer
One smart, clever girl
Owen by Kevin Henkes
Reader participation
Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling
An accidental wish
Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
Wicked good fun
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Tiny people under the floor
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
An orphan mystery
Press Here by Hervé Tullet
Of dogs and men
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
A monkey, a man, a yellow hat
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
A musical cricket in NYC
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
If crayons could talk
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The power of a story
The Call Of The Wild by Jack London
Classic dystopia
The Complete Adventures of Curious George by H. A. Rey
A boy, a bear, a honeypot
The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
Visionary illustration
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
Famous animal fables
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce
Monsters, Mythology, and a boy
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Discover Narnia
The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
I think I can
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Unique and universal
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
A daring mouse
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
Everyday machines
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Role reversal
The Little Engine That Could by Watty PiperPrint |
An odd and original journey
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Classic nursery rhymes
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
A hidden wonder
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
For children of all ages
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
A day of exploration
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Little elephant, big city
The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright
A gentle bull
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A great adventure
The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew, Book 1) by Carolyn Keene
Solving mysteries since 1927
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Baby's first book
The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant by Jean De Brunhoff
Civil rights story
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Witty coming-of-age novel
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
A twisty mystery
The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys No. 1) by Franklin W. Dixon
Mole, Toad, Rat, and Badger
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Over the rainbow
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
"buccaneers and buried gold"
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
The lure of immortality
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
A tale of family
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Rabbits on a journey
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Fantasy and Folklore
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
A boy and his dogs
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
The joys of imagination
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Let the wild rumpus start!
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Kindness counts
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Wonder by R. J. Palacio