What to Read for Children at Each Age Level

by Caroline Poppendeck

What makes a book good for a child?

Different age groups have different skill levels and needs. Here is a list of suggestions:

A baby (up to 18 months) is stimulated by rhymes, colors, or things familiar. Try Red, Blue, Yellow Shoe, by Tana Hoban; or Clip, Clop by Nicola Smee.

Toddlers are ready for more. Try Baby Shoes, by Dashka Slater; or Daisy’s Hide and Seek, by Jane Simmons. Simple counting or alphabet books are also good choices.

Pre-schoolers, ages 3-5, enjoy a fuller story and an expansion of concepts, such as Goodnight Moon 1 2 3, based on the classic by Margaret Wise Brown; Will Goes to the Post Office, by Olof and Lena Landstrom; or A Splendid Friend Indeed, by Suzanne Bloom.

Kindergarteners to Second graders still enjoy being read to, although they have been working hard to read independently. This age provides two options: easy readers for solitary reading, and picture books to share. Easy Readers such as Easy as Apple Pie, by Karen Gray Ruelle provides age-appropriate vocabulary to help sharpen skills. Books such as The Raft, by Jim Lamarche, provide a more complex storyline for the older child, complete with pictures.

Third grade to Middle schoolers are ready for chapter books: the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, or the plethora of series books available. These work right into Junior High level.

Young adult books are usually reserved for ninth graders and up. These include difficult subjects such as sex, drugs, or emotional traumas. They provide a bridge between younger-aged books and adult fiction. They may help teens deal with personal difficulties, or understand these subjects better.

Do consider this: Reading together can be enjoyed at any age!

I remember my mother's voice........

I remember my mother’s voice.

Encircled in her arms as she held A Child’s Garden of Verses or a Dr. Seuss book, I could listen to her soothing voice any time – before breakfast, after nap, before bedtime or any place – on the green striped davenport, the front stoop, my very own double bed. Inspired and encouraged by her warm, expressive voice, I was reciting “I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me” and “How do you like to go up in a swing, up in the air so blue?” by the time I was four. Oh, the patience and enthusiasm she had to read the same stories and poems over and over. She read to me and my brother and sister for years, not just when we were toddlers. My favorite Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who, was published in 1954 when I was eight, and, even though I could read it myself by then, it’s her voice that I hear when I read it today.

My mom had not gone to college, but she knew the best way to prepare us for school: read aloud, read aloud, read aloud. She read nursery rhymes that developed our “phonemic awareness,” the ability to hear, distinguish, and play with the sounds of our language. Dr. Seuss helped, too, as he tickled us with silly rhymes and nonsense words: “in the Jungle of Nool… in the cool of the pool” and “When they got to the top… and he shouted out, ‘Yopp!’” Imitating Dr. S in the back-back of our Ford station wagon -- “Donna, wanna, lonna, zonna” and “Mark, park, bark, wark,” we were blissfully unaware of our increasing phonemic awareness.

Mom’s reading voice was so exceptional that I suggested she volunteer at local schools when she retired. She never took me up on that. In writing this piece, I’ve realized that my mother may not have had an exceptional voice. The act of reading aloud made her voice beautiful to me.

Please read aloud to a child in your life. Your voice will be beautiful, remembered and loved for longer than you’d imagine.

New Year’s Resolution: Get Caught Reading!

Donna Homuth, retired English and Instructional Support Teacher, serves on the Board of the Family Reading Partnership of the Chemung Valley.

New Year’s Resolution: Get Caught Reading!

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Like father, like son.

Or, in this case, like mother, like daughter.

Years ago, my sister-in-law Kathy and I sat on her front stoop, just talking. Along came four-year-old Becky, who sat beside us, promptly picked up an old cigarette butt from the walk, put it to her lips, and feigned smoking. In that split second, Kathy vowed to quit smoking. She never got caught smoking again. More to the point, neither did my niece, now a marathon-running mother of two.

Kids are great imitators, especially of the adults in their lives. Have you seen toy cell phones? Before they can even talk, toddlers will babble on pretend cells, emulating their moms, dads, and older siblings. We have to watch what we say in front of children because they’ll repeat what they hear. My cousin Linda, also at age four, was overheard remarking about a neighbor, “I can remember when he didn’t have two nickels to rub together.” She had no idea what that meant, but you can bet that my aunt and uncle never again got caught gossiping in front of their precocious daughter.

It’s New Year’s Resolution time. Some of us may decide to quit smoking. Some of us may decide to quit gossiping. Some of us may have already broken our resolution to quit swearing, eating ice cream in secret, or having that extra beer.

Here’s a sweet resolution for you: don’t quit anything. Just do more of something that you like doing anyway. Get caught reading! The more you read in front of children, the more they’ll want to read themselves, the more they’ll want you to read to them.

So, kick back in your recliner and read, read, read. When the little one jumps aboard with her copy of Green Wilma, keep reading, and say, “Wait ‘til I finish this chapter.” Then, by all means, indulge her with Tedd Arnold’s sprightly story in rhyme.

Or, at the breakfast table, when the three-year-old asks for another piece of whole-wheat cinnamon toast, keep your nose in that newspaper, and say, “As soon as I finish this article.” Then, by all means, pop the bread in the toaster, pick up that toddler, and read him the comics while you wait for his crispy crust.

Bring books – one for you, one for your little buddy – whenever you go somewhere that involves waiting time, maybe the doctor’s office or the car repair garage. Sit on that vinyl lounge and open your latest mystery while your young companion opens The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, borrowed from the library. Read together or read separately. The time will fly and you’ll both be surprised (and a little miffed) when you’re interrupted and told that the doctor is ready or your car is fixed. Instead of getting caught watching the clock, you’ll get caught reading.

New Year’s Resolution: get caught reading labels in the grocery store, magazines in the barbershop, novels in the bedroom, newspapers in the kitchen, emails in the den. And when you catch kids reading, remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and that reading is the surest way to school readiness and success.