Anna started to read last week. She’s been gathering lots of prerequisite skills along the way, and last week I saw the light bulb go on. “Mom,” she asked, “can you make me a pile of books that I can read? I want them on my nightstand, like you have.” What mom-former-teacher-university-professor could turn down that offer? So, we gathered. Mind you, Anna wasn’t interested in gathering books she had already memorized. She wants the kind she has to work on. She treats sounding out words as a game. So here are some of the ones we gathered.

Brian Wildsmith’s Cat on the Mat was the first one I pulled off our shelf, then The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat and My Cat, a book about a cat who loves to nap (I’d provide the Amazon link but Anna took the book to preschool, and there are 2,438 results on Amazon for “my cat” and “children’s books”!).

Others she worked on with varying levels of interest and success Hop on Pop (a little long for her), I Like Books , The Fox on the Box and a handful of Bob books.

Care to add any to our stack? Anna’s criteria: “You know, books that I have to read, not know by heart!”

About the Author

Joanne Meier has more than 20 years of experience in the field of education, including serving on the faculty at the University of Virginia for six years where she trained reading specialists and future classroom teachers. Dr. Meier was Reading Rockets’ research-to-practice consultant from 2002 to 2014, where she wrote the Page by Page blog — sharing best practices in supporting young readers at home and in the classroom.

Publication Date
March 12, 2007

Related Topics

Children’s Books, Early Literacy Development
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