Below are the best early reader books that are written at Guided Reading Level A-E / DRA Level A-8 books. (It's the same level--just some schools use the
one book leveling system and others use the other.) In general:
Note: Since every child is different, you might want to check with your child's teacher to determine his/her exact level.
As teachers ourselves, we sincerely hope this information will be a helpful resource for teachers in need of books for their classrooms or parents looking for books for their own children to read. And if we've left your favorite off our list, please do let us know! We love book recommendations.
This page lists:
(1) discount sets of early reader books all written at this level
(2) individual books at this level (with links to buy on Amazon)
(3) word decoding strategies beyond "just sound it out"
(4) skills to help early readers develop at level A-2 / 1-8
Below is a list of the best Level A-E / DRA A-8 children's
books that we could find that are available to buy on Amazon.com. In our experience, you can't just buy any books written at this level. Because word choice is so restricted, many books written at this level are dreadfully dull or super awkward. But not the books below. They all pass our 'teacher test' AND kids really like them too. :)
Please note that as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Max and Ruby Play School
Babar's Little Circus Star
My Dog, Buddy
For generations, the only advice children were given when learning to read was "sound it out." Sounding out words is a great strategy...in some cases. But it's just one of a number of different 'word decoding strategies' that good readers should employ when the come across challenging words. Below are the four main strategies that readers of Guided Reading Level A-E / DRA Level 1-8 books should employ when trying to read new words:
(1) Look at the picture for clues -- Trust us...this is NOT cheating. Please fight the urge to cover up the picture with your hand. :) Instead, early readers should be really encouraged to look at pictures in order to help them read harder words. Indeed, authors of books aimed at this audience INTENTIONALLY include clues in their pictures to help kids read challenging words. For example, a Level A/1 book about the zoo might read "I see a giraffe at the zoo." Since very beginning readers cannot read a word like 'giraffe', the picture will help them with that tricky word. Trust us.... it's not cheating. If they are looking at the pictures for clues it's because they need the extra help.
(2) Get the word started -- Children should develop the practice of getting words started by saying the beginning sound.
(3) Sound it out --
(4) Look for chunks or small words inside the unknown word -- Children start reading by tackling words letter by letter. This is a great first step, but you really start seeing great strides in reading when kids start reading words in 'chunks' or 'parts they already know'. For example, when trying to read the word "which", a child who is reading letter by letter will have a very hard time decoding this word. (If you make each of those individual letter sounds, you will notice that the resulting word is nowhere near the actual word!) By contrast, a child who has learned /ch/ and /wh/ (digraphs) and recognizes those chunks ahead of time will read the word as /wh/ /i/ /ch/. He/she will likely then be able to easily blend those sounds together and recognize the actual word.
Below are reading skills -- in order of difficulty -- that can help readers at this level start their journey of reading:
return to the Guided Reading levels main page return to the DRA Levels main page