Lists

100 (Plus 5) Must-Read Books for Young Readers

Karina Glaser Dec 31, 2016

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Karina Glaser

Contributing Editor

Karina Yan Glaser is a full-time writer and illustrator with a varied career teaching and implementing literacy programs in family homeless shelters and recruiting healthcare professionals to volunteer in under-resourced areas around the world. Karina is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade books, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street and The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden. She lives in Harlem with her husband, two daughters, and an assortment of rescued animals. One of her proudest achievements is raising two kids who can't go anywhere without a book. Website: www.karinaglaser.com; Twitter: @KarinaYanGlaser; Instagram: @KarinaIsReadingAndWriting

View All posts by Karina Glaser

While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Tuesday, January 3rd.

This post originally ran October 10, 2016.

This post is sponsored by Look Past by Eric Devine

Look Past is a gripping murder mystery involving a transgender teen and a fundamentalist religious sect. Avery is a trans boy who was in love with his friend Mary, but was shunned by her conservative reverend father. Mary is murdered in a brutal way because of her love for Avery, and he could be next. With the entire town caught in the grip of fear, the killer remains at large. Avery is torn between finding the killer and saving himself—not just from the hands of a vicious murderer, but from everyone who thinks he should try to be “normal.”

Those moments when a child begins to read can be the most magical time in a young child’s life. So many kids fall in love with reading during that time and become more independent and confident in their literacy skills.

However, the problem I ran into when my daughters were just learning to read was the large amount of books available to young readers in drastically different levels of difficulty. Numbered readers often varied in level from one publisher to another. Then there were readers geared for beginning readers that had sophisticated words and themes. As my kids progressed in their reading, I found some great books for their reading levels shelved with middle grade books while others were shelved in early chapter books.

In this list of 100 best books for young readers, I found it easiest to categorize the books in three groups:

In Beginning Readers, I put books that were very heavy with illustrations and contained words that beginning readers would be able to sound out or be familiar with. An example of a book in this category is The Fire Cat by Esther Averil.

In Intermediate Readers, I listed books that still mostly had pictures on every page but contained more advanced words as well as longer, more complex paragraphs. An example of a book in this category is The Princess in Black by Shannon and Dean Hale.

In Early Chapter Books, I put books that had a lot more text and fewer (if any) illustrations, but with content that was still relatable to young readers. This category is also great for read alouds, in addition to younger advanced readers who are ready for more complex reading but may not prepared the more mature themes of middle grade literature. An example of a book in this category is Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke.

As always, the person best equipped to know what books are appropriate are the adults who are closest to the child: parents, guardians, family members, caretakers, and teachers. This list is meant as a guide, not a definitive reading list. If you find your child is connecting with one of these books and you would like additional recommendations, find me on Twitter at @KarinaYanGlaser !

Enjoy, and happy reading!

Beginning Readers

1. Ling and Ting (series) by Grace Lin