First Chapter Books for Emerging Readers
This booklist is a little different than the FIRST NOVELS TO READ ALOUD list because these are short novels that would be appropriate for emerging readers to read themselves, whether silently or aloud, as they move out of the restricted vocabulary format of leveled readers. Sometimes, mysteries are short and interesting, and the solution has a lot of reward value, so the bottom five selections are mysteries.
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain – Alice Dalgliesh
The Courage of Sarah Noble – Alice Dalgliesh
The Matchlock Gun – Walter D Edmonds
Next Spring an Oriole trilogy – Gloria Whelan
Phoebe the Spy – Judith Berry Griffin
Billy and Blaze series – C W Anderson
Six Silver Spoons – Janette Sebring Lowrey
The White Stallion – Elizabeth Shub
The Sword in the Tree (and others) – Clyde Robert Bulla
Commander Toad series – Jane Yolen
Sarah, Plain and Tall series – Patricia MacLachlan
Mercy Watson series – Kate DiCamillo
Skunk and Badger/Egg Marks the Spot – Amy Timberlake
Anna Hibiscus series – Atinuke
Gooney Bird Greene series – Lois Lowry (click to read review)
Pippi Longstocking series – Astrid Lindgren
The Littles series – John Peterson
Flatfoot Fox series – Eth Clifford
Encyclopedia Brown series – Donald J Sobol
A-Z Mysteries – Ron Roy
Cam Jansen series – David A Adler
Nate the Great series – Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
...and of course, anything else they show an interest in!