Chapter Books for the Hesitant Reader

Most of my experience as a regular education teacher has been with upper elementary students. As students move into 3rd grade, they transition from reading picture books to chapter books. A pattern I’ve noticed over the years is that students enjoy having a chapter book in hand, whether they can actually read it or not—the thicker, the better. Chapter books simply become “the thing” when students reach the upper grades. As their teacher, I knew which books best fit their reading ability, so at the media center, I encouraged them to check out one “just-right” book and one book of their choice. I noticed that all of my struggling readers chose a chapter book as their book of choice, regardless of its difficulty.

I was excited when I discovered books by Cigdem Knebel. She writes books that resemble chapter books but are designed for a lower reading level. Her target audience are children with dyslexia, and she focuses on font, line and word spacing, making the books decodable. I decided to purchase some of her books for the various levels of students in my third through fifth grade groups. Wow! My students love them and are excited to actually be reading a chapter book. I will share the books in this article (the series I have used with my upper-grade students). These books are also great for parents who homeschool, as well as for parents and grandparents looking for additional books for home. The books below are listed from early decodable and then increase in difficulty.