If you have a child who is just learning to read, like I do, then you know what a challenge it can be. I’m either struggling to find books that are at his level (and interesting!) or just struggling to get him to read with me at all. Reading for someone who’s new at it is, after all, hard work, and therefore is not as entertaining as say, playing Wii video games.

I’ve made my way through a variety of the series available from the UDPL’s Easy Readers (ER) collection. One series that I’ve found to be particularly effective is We Both Read. In these books, an older sibling or adult reads one page and the child reads the next, then back and forth and back and forth. This way, my son doesn’t get frustrated thinking he has to read a whole book himself and the storyline is richer and more exciting because the pages for adults are more advanced. Difficult words are repeated in bold on both pages, improving vocabulary along the way. Titles are available in fiction and nonfiction. We’ve just finished reading About Space (ER 520 Carso.J) so it’s back on the shelf. See an example below from http://webothread.com.