Favorite Independent Readers

Some of the books we have enjoyed using for reading practice at various levels.  Check back often!  I will be adding more as we go along.

Reader Series' We Have Used
Abeka Little Owl Books
All About Spelling Level 1 Readers
The McGuffey Primer 
Dick and Jane Treasury
Pathway Readers for Grade 1 and Grade 2  (By the time Michelle finished the Grade 2 readers, she was able to read simple chapter books like The Boxcar Children.)
Harriette Taylor Treadwell's Reading Literature Primer, First and Second Readers (These are our favorites!)

Level 1 Readers
The Cat in the Hat by Dr Suess
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr Suess
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Suess
Hop on Pop by Dr Suess
Big Blue Book of Beginner Books (Go Dog Go and others)
Richard Scarry's Best Read-it-Yourself Book Ever
Danny the Dinosaur series by Syd Hoff

Level 2 Readers
Little Bear series by Else Homelund Minarik
The Frances series by Russel C Hoban
The Amelia Bedelia series by Peggy Parrish
The Frog and Toad series and others by Arnold Lobel
Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant (she has other easy-reader series' too that fit into both the level 1 and 2 categories)
Nate the Great series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
The Magic Schoolbus books by Joanna Cole  (not great literature by any means, but Michelle enjoyed them at this level)
The Billy and Blaze series by CW Anderson
At this level, I also found that Michelle could read just about any of the picture books on our shelves to her younger siblings...

Beginning (Short) Chapter Books
The Cobble Street Cousins series by Cynthia Rylant
The Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner  (Note: Volumes 1-19 were the only ones written by the original author.)
The Lighthouse Family series by Cynthia Rylant
The Thornton Burgess Animal books (The Adventures of Grandfather Frog, Buster Bear, etc)
The My Father's Dragon series by Ruth Stiles Gannet
My son has particularly enjoyed the non-fiction type Level 3 and 4 easy readers that you can often find a the library - especially ones about space.

Advancing Chapter Books
B is for Betsy and other Betsy stories by Carolyn Haywood
Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
All of a Kind Family series by Sidney Taylor
Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill (I believe there are others in the series too)
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (there are a couple of sequels too)
Pippi Longstocking series and Happy Times in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren
The Hundred Dresses and The Moffats series by Eleanor Estes
The Saturdays and its sequels by Elizabeth Enright - also Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away
TumTum and Nutmeg series by Emily Bearn
Books by Beverley Cleary
The "Twins" Series by Lucy Fitch Perkins
The "Shoes" Series by Noel Streatfield
Books by Marguerite Henry (Michelle's personal favorite is King of the Wind)
Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien

I can no longer keep track of everything my kids read, so while I will try to pop in with special favorites, I've given up trying to keep track in general.


Ambleside Online recently expanded their free-reading lists to include suggestions that might be more appropriate for reading alone at various levels (scroll to the bottom of the booklist page for each of Years 1-6.) I also like to use the lists of readers at Sonlight to find good books at an appropriate reading level.