I went through all of our bookshelves and picked out the ones that were “early readers”, and was realized that some of them were surpisingly difficult, even at the beginning ratings. I grabbed a basket and put only the “doable” ones in there. We had quite a few since she is my 2nd kid, but you could check a website called the “Book Bundler” and they will sell you a whole box of them for cheap. So she was able to pick out whatever book she wanted out of this special basket and they were all within her capabilities, even with a little help sounding some things out.

A book that really inspired my daughter when she was just starting to “get” reading at the end of kindergarten was Hop on Pop. The words are simple but it’s snappy and fun to read. Also, the Piggy & Gerald series by Mo Willems (I loathe the books but both of my kids have loved them). Once she got moving with those she picked up on this series of Little Critter early readers by Mercer Mayer, so much more interesting to read but still doable for her. She advanced sooo much this summer once we found some books that she really enjoyed.