My 4yo loves to hear us reading her books, especially at bedtime.
She’s already got some long-ish books (20 pages, with 2 sentences per page), but they’re all full of pictures and we cannot stop reading it in the middle or she will complain it’s not finished.
My question has actually two nuances. First one is: By your experience, are 4 year olds ready to listen to a longer book (those with no images) and understand that we can stop at any given chapter? 😂 (I believe she can understand that difference, actually)
Second: If yes, which books would you recommend? Is Harry Potter too early 😬? Hobbit? BTW, I think it is too early to Harry Potter, cause she is very emotive to what happens to characters on other stories, but I’d love to see your comments. 😊
Thank you!
by roundabout_fox
12 Comments
My three year old is loving magic treehouse and narnia
I’ve been reading chapter books with my 5.5 yo daughter for about a year now. Currently on Danny the Champion of the World and she loves it.
the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett my twins loved it when they were four… they had to recap the story every night before i read the next chapter….the boxcar children was a great series also..
Comet in Moominland
You might try some books with shorter chapters, like Magic Treehouse, Ivy and Bean, or Boxcar Children.
Each chapter might take about 15-20 minutes to read. Some chapters in Harry Potter can be close to an hour. So even if you break up the chapters into several sessions, it might take you many weeks to get through the book. This was hard for my kids when they were young. A book with 10 short chapters that we could read in 10 nights made it feel like we were “getting somewhere.”
As a child I distinctly remember having the Pippi Longstocking stories read to me and my sister and it working well cause each chapter was kind of it’s own story but with the same characters and settings
We began to read chapter books at night when our oldest was about 4. Started with some of the less problematic Rhoal Dahl books as well as Charlotte’s Web.
I’d say still a little early for starting Harry Potter tbh. You could try something like The Worst Witch though.
After “picture books” we transitioned to chapter books with pictures. They’re a bit tricky to find, but we’ve liked The Kingdom of Wrenly series and some of the Dragon Masters series. Even Magic Treehouse has pictures every few pages.
My kid is 6 and we’re still not reading full on “no picture” books yet. In due time 🙂
Charlotte’s Web or Stuart Little
I always start with My Father’s Dragon and move to Ramona series then Charlotte’s web. They’re so high interest they don’t miss the pictures!
Oh I almost forgot Mrs Piggle Wiggle and Amelia Bedilia!