The Snarf Summer Reading Guide
For the rising readers (and their caretakers)
A month late or right on time? The answer is a month late. But, uh, I’m here now.
With at least some of you looking at a summer with kids who are strongly encouraged to read every day with no actual structure compelling them to do so, I thought I would dig through the archives plus toss out another series or two that learning readers can mostly handle on their own or with some help. All of these have lots of pictures (but aren’t picture books), and for some reason almost all of them start with D. The links on each title lead to the longer review.
Starting with…
This series is still ridiculous and I still like it. I also noticed recently that the text stays at a level that works well for early readers. So many books are right around there with the occasional long, confusing word, but this series is clearly built for early readers.
The vibe is basically Scooby Doo but the monsters are real and mostly friendly (instead of fake, unfriendly, and mostly concerned with driving down real estate prices on specific properties). They draw out the monster reveal and discovery in ways that are pretty obvious when you watch for them, but do the job of compelling the reader to keep going. These are our go-to reading practice books until further notice.
Another series that is built for early readers. The plot machinations that don’t bother me for some reason with Desmond Cole do for Dragon Masters, but it’s nothing that your kid is likely to care about (click the link for the full rant on that). Dragon Masters is part of the Branches Books collection, which all have numerous pictures and manageable vocabulary to help early readers. From what I can tell, they range from B- to B+ in quality, and I haven’t found any that deserve any warning label beyond that they can be mildly painful for adults to sit through.
Kingdom or Wrenly isn’t a Branches Book series but could easily be mistaken for one. It’s similarly fantasy 101, but with more of a focus on introducing different types of realms and creatures instead of endlessly coming up with new dragons.
Dog Man (not previously reviewed)
I have only read one Dog Man book, but I know two kids who used them as their first solo reading books. They are comic books about a human police officer with a dog head who doesn’t seem to talk. The art is basically the doodle-during-class style and the humor is juvenile in a way I don’t enjoy. There is some cleverness in the plot and the writing — they’re not entirely without merit — but the main thing I can say for them is that kids seem down to read these books on their own.
This series isn’t necessarily written for early readers, but it is narrated by one. Dory occasionally makes up words, which could get confusing, but these ones are fun for the whole family and could be worth a try for reading practice. I have now read most of the five books more times than I can count and I’m still not all that tired of them. Oh, and I heard at a bookstore that a sixth is coming out later this year! This was exciting news in our household.
I’ll throw in one more comic book series. This one is also silly and slapstick-heavy, but I found it more endearing than Dog Man. The first four make up a single story so if you get drawn in but the first you can keep going with the same narrative.