The Best Books for Learning to Read? The Complete Parent Guide to Decodable Books for Learning to Read in Kindergarten

How to Select the Best Decodable Books for Beginning Readers

The average adult can instantly recognize 20-50,000 plus words. You can’t memorize that many words, so knowing the code is essential for reading unknown words. 

Decoding means using knowledge of letter shapes and the sounds they represent to read words and sentences. This is often referred to as phonics. Decodable books for beginning readers provide practice in decoding simple words using letters and sounds they have already learned. It’s important to get your child reading books as soon as they learn the sounds because it gives that knowledge a useful purpose. Your child’s confidence and motivation for reading will grow when they successfully read simple decodable books.

Are Decodable Books and Levelled Books the Same?

The short answer is no. Levelled books usually contain too many words that are not easily decoded by beginning readers. Decodable books contain words that can be sounded out when the reader has learned those letter sounds.

Levelled Books are divided into categories based on a summary of their overall vocabulary, sentence structure, comprehension levels, and content. They are often labelled A-Z. To read them, children often have to rely on picture clues, repeated text patterns, and adult support. Levelled books do not provide the simple practice with learned letter-sound correspondences that help children build fluent sight word vocabulary based on connections between spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. 

Decodable Books are great for practicing phonics skills because they provide early reading success. When your child reads a decodable book, they should be using their knowledge of letter sounds to decode the words. Once they have learned most of the phonemes and are feeling confident in their reading ability, they will be excited to tackle more challenging levelled books.

If you move on to more challenging books and then notice your child is developing a habit of guessing the words, revisit the decodable books. This will help reinforce that reading is not about guessing. Reading is about using the sounds the letters represent to decode words and understand what they mean. With lots of reading practice, new words are mapped into memory and become sight words which can be instantly recalled.    

What to Look for in a Decodable Book

Are they actually decodable?

A decodable book should provide easy reading practice with already learned letter-sound correspondences. Most decodable books will also contain high frequency words, such as the, and, I, it, is, you, to, of, in, and a. These linking words are needed to write basic sentences, so your child should be familiar with them.  

Are they engaging? 

Children want to read books that draw them into the story and make reading enjoyable. This raises a challenge for decodable books because of the limited vocabulary.

Some ways authors make decodable books engaging are through humor, rhythm, repetition, playful language, and surprising plot twists. When children enjoy reading, they find it easier to practice the skills they need to become a strong reader.

Are the characters and themes relatable?

Children enjoy reading books with lovable characters and everyday situations that they can relate to. They feel comfortable when they see themselves and their life experiences reflected in the stories. Children also like to learn about the world around them, so it’s a good idea to add non-fiction books as their reading ability grows.  

Do the illustrations add to the story line?

Decodable books should have quality illustrations that enhance the storyline in a way that encourages your child to decode the text. Lovable characters and age appropriate, detailed scenes make the experience more interactive and support comprehension. However, to be a decodable book, you should be able to cover the picture, and your child can still read the text. 

Your child will be more motivated to read when the books are actually decodable based on their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences. Having too many undecodable words in a book slows the reading down and is exhausting and frustrating. 

As your child’s knowledge of letter/sound correspondences expands, look for decodable books that break stories into chapters. This makes the reading more manageable. Long stories and too many words on a page can be intimidating for early readers.  

How to Find Good Decodable Books

Early readers move through decodable books quickly, often memorizing them after a couple of read throughs. We encourage you to borrow them from the library, school, and friends, look in your local “little free library”, or buy used copies. 

You can even get creative and write simple decodable phrases and sentences using the sounds and words your child has learned.

Encourage your child to work along with you to write and illustrate a decodable book together. A whiteboard or folded paper booklet can be used for this activity. 

How to Help Your Child Read Decodable Books

First, make sure your child knows the sounds of reading and how to put them together and break them apart in a word. The Alphabites Game Pack is a great way to practice sounds in a fun and engaging way. Once your child has learned a few sounds, use the cards to build words and practice sounding them out. 

Next, introduce decodable books. Choose decodables with words that contain letter sounds they already know. 

Finally, it’s challenging to write basic sentences that make sense without using high frequency and linking words such as the, and, I, it, is, you, to, of, in, and a. Decodable books often contain a few of these words. 

Here are our 3 top tips for helping your child read decodables:

1. Build Familiarity: During your regular read aloud time, choose one of the high frequency words and point to it each time it appears in the text. You can also have your child read the chosen word whenever you point to it. Be sure they are looking at the word and thinking about the letters and sounds it contains. Seeing these words in other books will provide familiarity and confidence to read them when they appear in decodable books.

2. Explain When Needed: Many linking or high frequency words have unexpected letter sounds. For example the could be pronounced /t/ /h/ /ē/ if you didn’t know that the t and h work together to say /th/ as in the, they, them, these, and this. Point out familiar sounds and give a quick explanation for the pronunciation of the unknown or irregular sounds. For example, you could say, “This word is the. It looks like /t/ /h/ /ē/ but the t and h actually work together to say /th/ and the e is sneaky and pretends to be an /ŭ/. What does this word say? You’re right, it’s the!”

3. Keep it Playful and Fun: Use humor and silly voices to keep the learning lighthearted and fun. Encourage your child to make a couple attempts at reading an unknown word and provide support by slowly sounding out the word. If you sense they are getting frustrated, just say the sneaky word and move along. With practice, your child will eventually map decodable and high frequency words into memory so they become instantly recognizable.  

Summary of How to Select Decodable Books for Early Readers

To help your child experience early reading success, look for decodable readers that have:

• known letters/sounds, 
• are interesting and enjoyable to read, 
• contain relatable characters and themes, and 
• feel like real books. 

The #1 Thing You Need to Do Every Day to Help Your Child Learn to Read: Daily Shared Reading 

As a busy parent, you already know that reading with your child is really important, which leaves you feeling guilty when you can’t seem to fit it into your busy schedule. The daily reading habit has so many benefits. Reading builds vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. It increases attention span, supports a positive emotional connection to reading, and builds strong family bonds. It exposes your child to thousands of words and word meanings that are not regularly used in everyday conversations. It’s the most important activity you can do to grow your child’s love of reading which is an essential lifelong skill. 

Here are our top tips for making shared reading a daily habit:

1. Make reading a joyful part of everyday life: Start with a few minutes a day and work up to 15-20 minutes. Cuddle up, use funny voices, laugh and enjoy the story together. This strong bonding experience will help your child feel connected during reading and learn to love it. If your child is a beginning reader, it can be exhausting for them, so keep their reading sessions short and use the rest of the time for you to read more advanced books to them.
2. Let Them Choose Books: Let them choose books from the library and pick out books for reading time. Reading books they love, even if it’s the same one over and over, makes them feel confident and in control of their reading time. Encourage family and friends to choose books your child will love as gifts.
3. Anywhere, Anytime, and Anyone: Keep books in various locations around the house, in the car, and a travel bag. Read while they play in the tub, when travelling, waiting for appointments, or at the playground. Encourage family members and friends to read with your child. Commit to a strategy that works for your family.
4. Talk About What You Read: Ask questions about the characters and storyline and have your child retell parts of the story in their own words. For example: “What are the animals looking for?” “What do you think will happen next?” “Why do you think she did that?” This helps them think about the story and understand it better.
5. Keep It Joyful: Focus on fun, not perfection. If your child is wiggly or wants to talk more than read, that’s okay. Keep reading while they play alongside you, chat about the book, and keep the mood light and encouraging. If your child sees that you enjoy reading with them and on your own, it shows them that reading is fun and valuable.

Making reading a bonding and joyful, daily habit is the most powerful way to grow a confident, independent reader. If you help your child learn the alphabetic code, provide lots of experiences with books and activities that build background knowledge, and read with them every day, you will set them up for reading success. Have fun reading!  

Sign up for our Beginner Books Email series below to receive everything you need to know to help your child learn to read! This teacher-developed guide includes:

• Beginner Books Guide to select the best books for starting out
• 2 FREE Decodable Books to read together
• The #1 thing you need to practice to grow a strong reader
• A free gift for you!

 

Sources

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Pennell, A. E., Jordan, R. L. P., Nash, K. T., Elson, K., & Trathen, W. (2024). A Healthy Diet for Beginning Readers: Decodable Texts as Part of a Comprehensive Literacy Program. The Reading Teacher, 77(5), 673-684. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/trtr.2287 

Shayne B. Piasta, Jessica A. R. Logan, Kristin S. Farley, Tara M. Strang & Laura M. Justice (2022) Profiles and Predictors of Children’s Growth in Alphabet Knowledge, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 27:1, 1-26, DOI: 10.1080/10824669.2021.1871617 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10824669.2021.1871617 

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