For so few words, easy readers can be surprisingly complex. And while the science behind how we learn to read is a fascinating topic, when it comes to helping your child, most parents just want to know: where do they even start?
Many of the easy readers you will see on our shelves fall into two general categories: predictable books and decodables. I should preface that one type is not better than the other. There’s no singular best way to teach reading; each child is different and there’s no need to pick a “side” when it comes to choosing which book to read. But if you do have concerns about your child, you should always talk to your child's teacher or the school's reading specialist.
Predictable Books vs. Decodables
If your child is learning how to read, you might have heard of the term “decodable” thrown around recently. “Decodable” books might sound complicated until you think about language as almost like a secret code a reader needs to crack. Each letter represents sounds and a child is learning to understand what those sounds are and how they blend together to make a word.
This is different from predictable books, which often utilize repetitive words and sentences, alongside more difficult vocabulary. The reader uses pictures as context clues to gather (“predict”) how to read what’s on the page. A good example you might already be familiar with is the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
For a more in-depth understanding of how these different sciences behind reading work, Reading Rockets has a great article detailing Decodable Books here.
One thing you might notice when browsing through the early readers is the different levels attached to the books, such as Level 1 or Level 3. The publisher determines these levels and unfortunately, there is no universal standard for how these books are judged. And while they can certainly be helpful when trying to get a rough idea of the level of ease or difficulty of a book, it’s worth noting that even if they are the same number, not all “levels” will be the same!
If all of this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry too much! Learning how to read can be a positive experience, especially once your child finds that series they love. One great way to get both you and your child excited is to get them involved in picking out the books they want to read. But most importantly, don’t stress too much about whether every book is the right “level” for their ability. After all, we’re the library— we want you to take home lots of books!
To make it easier to browse our large collection of easy reader books, we’ve created a genre tag to highlight the titles that focus on phonics so you can more easily find books that fit the needs of your child—and you don’t even have to be in the library to do it!
Easy Ways to Find Easy Readers
Our catalog can do more than just show whether or not we have a book. One cool feature that is often overlooked is genre tags. We’ve created a search to make it easier to locate easy readers, particularly ones that focus on phonics concepts like the decodable readers. You can click here to browse what’s available.
Here's what you'll see when you search for "Decodables" in the catalog:
The left-hand bar has a lot of ways you can fine-tune your search even further. If you click "Available Now," you can select a specific Branch or Branches, to see what’s currently on the shelf.
If you're logged into your account, you can place a hold on the books you see and the library will pull them for you. Holds aren't immediate, though, so remember to wait until you've received an email or phone call alerting you that your hold is now available to pick up!
Other helpful filters are changing the "Sort by" button above the titles being shown. If you're someone who likes to see the newest books available, sorting by "Date acquired" or "Publication date" might be interesting to try.
You can also filter the format. If you don't want to see any eBooks, selecting "Book" under the Format button will only show you the physical books.
If you need more help navigating the catalog, your librarians are there to help guide you through the process, too! If you need a jumping-off point, check out this booklist to see a small sampling of the different kinds of early readers we have available for your child.
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