Finding a “just right” book for your child can be challenging. Maybe you’ve had the experience of choosing a seemly simple picture book, only to watch your child struggle over unknown vocabulary and rule-breaking spelling patterns you’re at a loss to explain. Or perhaps you select a book that seems perfect, except the content is not age-appropriate or of little interest to your young reader.
When I work with a student on reading, I provide texts that meet my student’s comprehension level, fluency level, and interests. One of my favorite resources for books is Booksource. Booksource is a website that offers collections of texts based on genre, topic, and reading level. They are leveled based on Fountas and Pinnell‘s reading benchmark system. You can ask your child’s teacher for their reading benchmark. Schools may use different leveling systems. If your child’s school does not use Fountas and Pinnell, there is a simple conversion chart offered by Reading AZ that is very helpful. I also suggest reading my blog post, ‘3 Simple Steps to Finding a ‘Just Right’ Book for Your Child.”
I like book source because I can tailor it to my student’s specific learning needs and interests. My student may be great at reading fiction texts, but struggles with understanding nonfiction text features such as a table of contents or glossary. Using Booksource, I can choose a nonfiction collection at my student’s reading level and specifically select the type of nonfiction texts my student is interested in, be it nature or technology. Booksource also has collections that are full of award-winning books. The collections are very reasonably priced, but if you are not ready to invest in a collection, you could always select a few titles to request from your local library to see if you like them.