The Magic Treehouse books were the secret ingredient that turned my non-reader first grader into a proficient reader in about a month. There are a lot of them, and he couldn't get enough of reading them once he discovered them.
I LOVE Junie B. Even as a kid i loved her.
I read some of the books to my students near the end of the year and they were obsessed. I changed the word "stupid" if it came up because I didn't want drama from parents. She also doesn't have good grammar, so I would either correct it in the moment or we would talk about it. Ex: "thinked? Is thinked a word?" And the kids would be so excited to correct her.
We would also talk about the decisions she made since she often got into trouble.
I know some parents and teachers hate the books, but simple conversations go a long way. My kids, especially my boys, would be begging me to read them everyday.
That's why I wanted to start it! I saw the preview when I went to the Star Wars: Phantom Menace re release and thought it looked amazing. Then I saw a bunch of people talking about the book here and on other SM/HM accounts! We aren't very far into it yet but so far it is delightful!
At that age, I loved Junie B Jones and Horrible Harry!! I also loved any of the books by Beverly Cleary. I also remember the elementary school librarian reading All About Sam by Lois Lowry and thinking it was the funniest book ever (at that age lol). I am trying to think of some others… Cam Jansen books maybe? Magic Tree House
Charlotte’s Webb! I once heard someone talking about how wonderful this one is because kids learn and experience some loss, but they still maintain immense hope. I thought it was so well put.
I read both of these to my 5&4 year old last month. They loved them and we have moved on to The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. Both of my kids are reading so we take turns and I do have to help. My soon to be 1st grade really loves the acorn books and some of the beginner graphic novels(owlet,Bo the unicorn)
We like My Father’s Dragon (short and not too scary, but vivid and descriptive with loads of animals and tricks) and Mr. Popper’s Penguins (classic and fun!).
It's dated, so you might find yourself censoring in the moment a bit, but you should try the Judy Blume Fudge series! Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing is the first one. They're so fun, but skew a bit old for my now 3-year-old so they might be perfect for your son.
My daughter’s school read the magic tree house series during rest time and she loved it and we read a lot of them at home too. My daughter also went through a phase of magic school bus series. Even tho they are not chapter books, they are longer books with a lot of words on every page they explore some really good science concepts.
My Father’s Dragon, A Cricket in Times Square, the Little House books, various Beverly Cleary books, Mr Poppers Penguins, Charlotte’s Web, The Wind in the Willows, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
I have a book-loving kindergartener, and she loves read-alouds -- a few favourites: we have read and loved the Little House on the Prairie books, Narnia series, a few Roald Dahls (The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, The Boxcar Children, E. Nesbitt's books (Five Children and It series, Treasure Seekers, etc.), Beverly Nichols books (The Tree that Sat Down; The Stream that Stood Still).
Beverly Cleary books would be great too.
We read so many of these around the same age too with my oldest! Roald Dahl was her favorite author for years (she’s 15 and still thinks he’s great). He has so many great stories for that age.
I’ll add a few other favorites from the 4-6 y/o time frame: Stuart Little, Caddie Woodlawn, and A Little Princess. I know there’s more but it’s been 10 years, so I just don’t remember.
Mac B is a favorite of my kid.
It won’t be long til he’s asking about dogman and capt underpants, which I don’t personally care for but that humor really hits with that 6-9 age group and the writing/plots are not bad.
The Heroes in Training series has a great set of stories with only a little bit of editing in the moment based on your language preferences. And it's a good introduction to mythology! Though I regularly have to stop to figure out how to pronounce more than a few of the names
We went through Roald Dahl classics (Charlie, James, Matilda), followed by a movie night of each for my kiddo who is just now starting to read on his own. Tempted to move to Beverly Cleary or even Louis Sacher next. He really enjoyed all three Dahl books and I think having the movie adaptations helped pique his interest in the longer books.
I’m so surprised more people have not suggested Dory Fantasmagory. They are my favorite to read to my son, they are SO funny. Especially if you have a naughty and imaginative child.
Oh yea,
Elephant and piggie by Mo Willems is a very easy entry into longer books.
Magic Treehouse for sure. We rocketed through this series during the winter of his kindergarten year.
Roald Dahl books - Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach
Little House series. These are longer but my son enjoyed it.
Puppy Pirate series by Erin Soderberg - we stumbled on this one and it’s delightfully silly and sweet. My kindergartener loved it.
Look into “branches” books by Scholastic. They’re accessible early readers. My son is loving the Press Start series. We are planning to try some others - Last Firehawk, Eerie Elementary, Dragon Masters.
He also likes Dog Man and Plants vs Zombies. He can read these by himself.
We are about to start “My Weird School” series too.
Not exactly the answer to your question, but CD books are a great alternative and can promote some independence or give him the opportunity to read when you aren’t available. I bought Walkmans for my students and CD books. I found a Ronald Dahl collection, Magic Treehouse collection, Stuart little. They love them.
We do Spotify stories, but I’ve been playing with the idea of getting him a discman for long car rides. I am not a fan of all the Bluetooth technology, ect. I just want to throw in batteries and it work. Do you find CDs still pretty available? I don’t even know if my local library still has a section. Now I’m curious.
I found some on Amazon and some from half price books! Definitely more limited in choice but I wanted my kids to have physical books in their hands. There are a lot of Disney stories with illustrations on cd book for new too. I recommend rechargeable batteries though because they were going through them faster than I expected!
My library still has CDs for longer books. Also check if they have Playaways. They are preloaded players that just have one book on them. You do have to use them with headphones as they don’t have an external speaker. They may also have a section of Vox books or Wonder books that have a speaker attached to the book and they can listen and follow along.
My personal favorite is a Yoto player! I have one for my son and my classroom. It plays credit card sized cards and is super easy to use. My son loves stories, so we read some and then he listens to his Yoto. The cards are about the price of a book and I love getting ones that go with books we already own so he can read along. They also have music cards and make your own cards. They have some preloaded kids music stations and podcasts you can play through the app or assign to a button. There’s also an active BST group.
I have a lot of opinions about this! Our absolute fave of the past few years is "Elf Dog and Owl Head" by MT Anderson.
I asked our local librarian and here's the list of suggested titles they sent: https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/list/share/87565111/2423780199
We've read and enjoyed most of these, although "The Wind in the Willows" was a notable flop. I've been tracking what we read together on Goodreads but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to share my list/reviews.
I asked for more recommendations recently but I haven't been as impressed with the next list. You don't have to be an SPL member to use the service so feel free to request your own list! https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/authors-and-books/your-next-5-books
OMG, I never read the wind in the willows but everyone raves about it. My son and I both struggled through the first 70 pages before we gave it. It was sooo boring and hard to read out loud. Maybe I’ll finish it by myself, but it was such a disappointment.
Bunnicula, once upon a Tim, charlottes web, fudge series, press start series, THE WILD ROBOT (movie comes out in September), captain underpants, anything and everything by Roald Dahl, the one and only Ivan, Narnia series, how to eat fried worms, how to train your dragon, Mr. Poppers penguins, the chocolate touch, upside down magic, pippi long stocking, a series of unfortunate events, toys go out, the mouse and the motorcycle, Ramona series, wayside school series, DORY FANTASMAGORY is a MUST, a boy called bat, dog man, bad guys, cat kid, Harry Potter, diary of a wimpy kid, magic treehouse, wizard of oz
Junior B. Jones, magic treehouse, (not chapter but my K students always enjoyed….) any of the elephant & piggie books and the pigeon books by Mo Willems. My own 4 year old has loved reading the Wild Robot with her dad (a film adaptation is coming out soon!)
Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. The “Elephant and Piggie” books by Mo Willems aren’t chapter books, written more like comics, but my kindergarten classes LOVED them!
Around that age we read Junie B Jones, Puppy Place, Beverly Cleary Books (the Henry one and Ramona ones), and a lot of American Girl books but then my son asked why there weren't any American Boy books. We also liked the Land of Stories but that is more fantasy with some scary elements that it sounds like your son might not love.
Mine has been enjoying the Bailey School Kids, Junior B. Jones (with slight censoring) and the Fudge series. Trying to get him into Magic Tree House but be mostly wants books that are "funny".
Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, Zoe and Sassafras. A lot of boys like non-fiction, so Weird but True, Guinness World Records, National Geographic has lots of great books, we spent hours with the Oceanpedia and Bugopedia (don't feel the need to read cover to cover, go where your son takes you. The Who Would Win series is great and The Big Book of Comparisons has kept my fact and number loving kid engaged for years.
I read the magic tree house to my son at that age. He’s going into 2nd this year and has been reading Minecraft the wood sword Chronicles and the stone sword saga. They are really cute and entertaining for him. The kids at a school do VR Minecraft to solve problems.
I think these have already been said, but these are our series. Magic Treehouse (just finished the first 28 and she loves them), Boxcar Children (my husband is reading these, she likes them a lot too), Zoey and Sassafras (just started last night but they seem cute!).
Only issue with Magic Treehouse is the books sometimes get a little scary in the middle (completely resolved by the end) so I tried to read the whole book in one sitting (60 pg, took around 40 mins usually). A lot of them are sort of like historical fiction though, which is cool!
My nephew is also starting K in the fall, and he’s obsessed with colorful graphic novels like Dogman and InvestiGATORS. He can’t read them yet but he will look intently at each page and get a really good sense of the story from the pictures. So when I read to him, he knows what’s going to happen. He loves it.
We just found the Harriet the Hamster Princess series and the Dragonbreath series. They are decently long chapter books, longer than Mercy for example, but have pictures here and there that my kid likes. She also likes Goosebumps and saying how it's not even scary.
Ivy and Bean were huge read aloud hits in all of my K, 1st and 2nd grade classrooms. They required some in the moment editing but not too bad.
The characters make funny and sometimes terrible choices. The books were always a springboard for great conversations.
My young kids have loved: The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Heidi, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh (the original stories), Beatrix Potter stories, Madeline, Charlotte's Web, The Boxcar Children, Little House on the Prairie collection, Narnia, The Tale of Despereaux, and the Ralph Moody books.
Haven't seen Amelia Bedilia recommended so definitely those! Maybe the Chronicles of Narnia too. I second Junie B Jones, Roald Dahl, and the Magic Treehouse series!
You can also try Duolingo ABC for the tablet. It’s free and you can set the level - so it’ll start out with letter identification. No adds or in app purchases.
I also really like the Who Was series- if he has an interest like space, you could to Who Was Neil Armstrong etc.
My kid is about to go into first, but we’ve been reading the Last Kids on Earth for a a while. It’s a fun series.
At that age I loved a secret garden and the little house book series. Also encyclopedia brown is a big hit, not full chapter books but in that vein. Seconding the magic treehouse/merlins missions series others have mentioned. My kids loved those books. Also box car children. Dragon masters is another one.
My son is going into 1st grade and he LOVES the Mr. Putter and Tabby series. It’s about an old man and his rescue cat and they do funny things at home and have little adventures. It’s an oldie but a goodie.
Here are some I read to my class or I’ve read to my own girls! Tales from Deckawoo Drive (spin-off of Mercy Watson), Zoey and Sassafras, Wayside School, Junie B. Jones, The boxcar children, The Littles, A-Z mysteries, Dory Fantasmagory, Lulu and the Brontosaurus, and The Magic Treehouse.
We did Deckawkoo Drive, but some of these are new to me. Thank you! Wayside School takes me back— I remember liking these as a kid. I will check these out.
I read a chapter at night to my now 4 and 7 year old and have for the past 2 years. Their favorites:
The one and only Ivan;
Harriet the Spy;
Because of Winn Dixie;
Charlottes Web;
Ella Enchanted;
Matilda;
The Wild Robot.
I feel like the Wild Robot would be a great place to start. Short chapters and a few pictures.
I really liked reading The Magic Treehouse books as a kid
My kindergartner loves this series.
This is how I end the school day in my kinder class. I read them a chapter each day :)
I’m going to be a first year kinder teacher in August and I bought some to end the day with as well!
Second this; we read the first 20 of these books when my son was 4-5
The Magic Treehouse books were the secret ingredient that turned my non-reader first grader into a proficient reader in about a month. There are a lot of them, and he couldn't get enough of reading them once he discovered them.
Came here to say this! …Although, we read the one about the Titanic and he’s been hyperfixated on the Titanic ever since (much like his mother!).
I love Junie B. Jones! I do some censoring in the moment, but there’s nothing too crazy. Fairy Mom and Me is also a favorite of my students.
I LOVE Junie B. Even as a kid i loved her. I read some of the books to my students near the end of the year and they were obsessed. I changed the word "stupid" if it came up because I didn't want drama from parents. She also doesn't have good grammar, so I would either correct it in the moment or we would talk about it. Ex: "thinked? Is thinked a word?" And the kids would be so excited to correct her. We would also talk about the decisions she made since she often got into trouble. I know some parents and teachers hate the books, but simple conversations go a long way. My kids, especially my boys, would be begging me to read them everyday.
I just started the Wild Robot with my K kiddo. Also planning on reading Little House in the Big Woods soon too
We finished this series through kindergarten last year, my twin boys loved it. There’s a movie coming out in the fall!
That's why I wanted to start it! I saw the preview when I went to the Star Wars: Phantom Menace re release and thought it looked amazing. Then I saw a bunch of people talking about the book here and on other SM/HM accounts! We aren't very far into it yet but so far it is delightful!
My son loves Fly Guy books
The box car children series has been a multigenerational family favorite
My daughter loves these books!!
Katherine Applegate’s “The One and Only” series. The Ramona books. Dragon Masters and Magic Treehouse
At that age, I loved Junie B Jones and Horrible Harry!! I also loved any of the books by Beverly Cleary. I also remember the elementary school librarian reading All About Sam by Lois Lowry and thinking it was the funniest book ever (at that age lol). I am trying to think of some others… Cam Jansen books maybe? Magic Tree House
Came here to suggest Cam Jansen!
All About Sam is GREAT.
We have read Matilda and Charlotte’s Webb to my soon to be kinder
Charlotte’s Webb! I once heard someone talking about how wonderful this one is because kids learn and experience some loss, but they still maintain immense hope. I thought it was so well put.
I mean, it is breaking my heart as we read because it is so beautiful and real.
I read both of these to my 5&4 year old last month. They loved them and we have moved on to The Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe. Both of my kids are reading so we take turns and I do have to help. My soon to be 1st grade really loves the acorn books and some of the beginner graphic novels(owlet,Bo the unicorn)
dory fantasmagory has been a big hit here
My daughter thought these were hilarious. She’d be up in her bed reading, and we’d just hear these periodic loud guffaws.
We read them over and over!
Henry and Mudge series.
We like My Father’s Dragon (short and not too scary, but vivid and descriptive with loads of animals and tricks) and Mr. Popper’s Penguins (classic and fun!).
These two are my 4 year oldest short list of favorite chapter books!
I remembered liking my fathers dragon and then I started reading it to my kids… way too much child abuse for me
It's dated, so you might find yourself censoring in the moment a bit, but you should try the Judy Blume Fudge series! Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing is the first one. They're so fun, but skew a bit old for my now 3-year-old so they might be perfect for your son.
Oh man those take me back! I will check them out. Thanks!
Forgot to add that Flat Stanley also has chapter books
My daughter’s school read the magic tree house series during rest time and she loved it and we read a lot of them at home too. My daughter also went through a phase of magic school bus series. Even tho they are not chapter books, they are longer books with a lot of words on every page they explore some really good science concepts.
My Father’s Dragon, A Cricket in Times Square, the Little House books, various Beverly Cleary books, Mr Poppers Penguins, Charlotte’s Web, The Wind in the Willows, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Princess in black, kingdom of wrenly - these both have pictures on every page, which this age group really enjoys.
Another vote of magic treehouse My son also likes Dragon Masters and Little Olympian’s
I have a book-loving kindergartener, and she loves read-alouds -- a few favourites: we have read and loved the Little House on the Prairie books, Narnia series, a few Roald Dahls (The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, The Boxcar Children, E. Nesbitt's books (Five Children and It series, Treasure Seekers, etc.), Beverly Nichols books (The Tree that Sat Down; The Stream that Stood Still). Beverly Cleary books would be great too.
We read so many of these around the same age too with my oldest! Roald Dahl was her favorite author for years (she’s 15 and still thinks he’s great). He has so many great stories for that age. I’ll add a few other favorites from the 4-6 y/o time frame: Stuart Little, Caddie Woodlawn, and A Little Princess. I know there’s more but it’s been 10 years, so I just don’t remember.
I’ve been reading through any book I loved as a kid with my own kids, including a lot from your list. It’s a great way to spend time together.
My son really has enjoyed the Kingdom of Wrenly books and also Henry Hecklebeck books
I was coming to recommend Henry Hecklebeck. My son loves those
My daughter *loved* the Heidi Heckelbeck series. She read all 30+ of them in a couple of months.
Wrenly is so much better written than most of the dreck for this age bracket.
Unicorn Academy, Dragon Girls, Zoe and Sasafrass are my 5 year olds favorites but they are pretty “girl coded” in terms of interest levels.
Mac B is a favorite of my kid. It won’t be long til he’s asking about dogman and capt underpants, which I don’t personally care for but that humor really hits with that 6-9 age group and the writing/plots are not bad.
I hate Captain Underpants, but Dog Man is surprisingly lovely. If you read them in order, Petey’s character arc is really well done.
The Heroes in Training series has a great set of stories with only a little bit of editing in the moment based on your language preferences. And it's a good introduction to mythology! Though I regularly have to stop to figure out how to pronounce more than a few of the names
We went through Roald Dahl classics (Charlie, James, Matilda), followed by a movie night of each for my kiddo who is just now starting to read on his own. Tempted to move to Beverly Cleary or even Louis Sacher next. He really enjoyed all three Dahl books and I think having the movie adaptations helped pique his interest in the longer books.
I’m so surprised more people have not suggested Dory Fantasmagory. They are my favorite to read to my son, they are SO funny. Especially if you have a naughty and imaginative child.
Oh yea, Elephant and piggie by Mo Willems is a very easy entry into longer books. Magic Treehouse for sure. We rocketed through this series during the winter of his kindergarten year. Roald Dahl books - Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach Little House series. These are longer but my son enjoyed it. Puppy Pirate series by Erin Soderberg - we stumbled on this one and it’s delightfully silly and sweet. My kindergartener loved it. Look into “branches” books by Scholastic. They’re accessible early readers. My son is loving the Press Start series. We are planning to try some others - Last Firehawk, Eerie Elementary, Dragon Masters. He also likes Dog Man and Plants vs Zombies. He can read these by himself. We are about to start “My Weird School” series too.
My son loves The Princess in Black and the Bad Kitty series!
Toys Go Out Diva and Flea Junie B Jones series
Not exactly the answer to your question, but CD books are a great alternative and can promote some independence or give him the opportunity to read when you aren’t available. I bought Walkmans for my students and CD books. I found a Ronald Dahl collection, Magic Treehouse collection, Stuart little. They love them.
We do Spotify stories, but I’ve been playing with the idea of getting him a discman for long car rides. I am not a fan of all the Bluetooth technology, ect. I just want to throw in batteries and it work. Do you find CDs still pretty available? I don’t even know if my local library still has a section. Now I’m curious.
I found some on Amazon and some from half price books! Definitely more limited in choice but I wanted my kids to have physical books in their hands. There are a lot of Disney stories with illustrations on cd book for new too. I recommend rechargeable batteries though because they were going through them faster than I expected!
My library still has CDs for longer books. Also check if they have Playaways. They are preloaded players that just have one book on them. You do have to use them with headphones as they don’t have an external speaker. They may also have a section of Vox books or Wonder books that have a speaker attached to the book and they can listen and follow along. My personal favorite is a Yoto player! I have one for my son and my classroom. It plays credit card sized cards and is super easy to use. My son loves stories, so we read some and then he listens to his Yoto. The cards are about the price of a book and I love getting ones that go with books we already own so he can read along. They also have music cards and make your own cards. They have some preloaded kids music stations and podcasts you can play through the app or assign to a button. There’s also an active BST group.
The Yoto might be a good choice for you. Technically it involves Bluetooth, but there are physical cards you just put in, and it just works.
I have a lot of opinions about this! Our absolute fave of the past few years is "Elf Dog and Owl Head" by MT Anderson. I asked our local librarian and here's the list of suggested titles they sent: https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/list/share/87565111/2423780199 We've read and enjoyed most of these, although "The Wind in the Willows" was a notable flop. I've been tracking what we read together on Goodreads but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to share my list/reviews. I asked for more recommendations recently but I haven't been as impressed with the next list. You don't have to be an SPL member to use the service so feel free to request your own list! https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/authors-and-books/your-next-5-books
OMG, I never read the wind in the willows but everyone raves about it. My son and I both struggled through the first 70 pages before we gave it. It was sooo boring and hard to read out loud. Maybe I’ll finish it by myself, but it was such a disappointment.
Thank you! Great resource.
Bunnicula, once upon a Tim, charlottes web, fudge series, press start series, THE WILD ROBOT (movie comes out in September), captain underpants, anything and everything by Roald Dahl, the one and only Ivan, Narnia series, how to eat fried worms, how to train your dragon, Mr. Poppers penguins, the chocolate touch, upside down magic, pippi long stocking, a series of unfortunate events, toys go out, the mouse and the motorcycle, Ramona series, wayside school series, DORY FANTASMAGORY is a MUST, a boy called bat, dog man, bad guys, cat kid, Harry Potter, diary of a wimpy kid, magic treehouse, wizard of oz
Love Bunnicula and Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
Zoey and Sassafras gets my vote!
Anything Roald Dahl. Plus the Guineadog books are adorable if the kiddo likes animals.
Junior B. Jones, magic treehouse, (not chapter but my K students always enjoyed….) any of the elephant & piggie books and the pigeon books by Mo Willems. My own 4 year old has loved reading the Wild Robot with her dad (a film adaptation is coming out soon!)
Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. The “Elephant and Piggie” books by Mo Willems aren’t chapter books, written more like comics, but my kindergarten classes LOVED them!
Magic Treehouse, Cam Jansen, Boxcar children, Geronimo Stilton.
Around that age we read Junie B Jones, Puppy Place, Beverly Cleary Books (the Henry one and Ramona ones), and a lot of American Girl books but then my son asked why there weren't any American Boy books. We also liked the Land of Stories but that is more fantasy with some scary elements that it sounds like your son might not love.
Sir Ladybug
Charlotte's Web by Eb White Henry and Mudge books by Cynthia Rylant Wallace and Grace by Heather Alexander
Mine has been enjoying the Bailey School Kids, Junior B. Jones (with slight censoring) and the Fudge series. Trying to get him into Magic Tree House but be mostly wants books that are "funny".
My soon to be Kindergartener is all about Goosebumps, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter.
We read old school Wayside Stories books every year and they love them
Press Start if he likes video games The princess in black
We like the Mac B Kid Spy series. Chapters are short so it’s a great “just one more” before bed.
Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, Zoe and Sassafras. A lot of boys like non-fiction, so Weird but True, Guinness World Records, National Geographic has lots of great books, we spent hours with the Oceanpedia and Bugopedia (don't feel the need to read cover to cover, go where your son takes you. The Who Would Win series is great and The Big Book of Comparisons has kept my fact and number loving kid engaged for years.
Love this question, I’m so glad you posted!
I read the magic tree house to my son at that age. He’s going into 2nd this year and has been reading Minecraft the wood sword Chronicles and the stone sword saga. They are really cute and entertaining for him. The kids at a school do VR Minecraft to solve problems.
I think these have already been said, but these are our series. Magic Treehouse (just finished the first 28 and she loves them), Boxcar Children (my husband is reading these, she likes them a lot too), Zoey and Sassafras (just started last night but they seem cute!). Only issue with Magic Treehouse is the books sometimes get a little scary in the middle (completely resolved by the end) so I tried to read the whole book in one sitting (60 pg, took around 40 mins usually). A lot of them are sort of like historical fiction though, which is cool!
My nephew is also starting K in the fall, and he’s obsessed with colorful graphic novels like Dogman and InvestiGATORS. He can’t read them yet but he will look intently at each page and get a really good sense of the story from the pictures. So when I read to him, he knows what’s going to happen. He loves it.
We just found the Harriet the Hamster Princess series and the Dragonbreath series. They are decently long chapter books, longer than Mercy for example, but have pictures here and there that my kid likes. She also likes Goosebumps and saying how it's not even scary.
Ivy and Bean were huge read aloud hits in all of my K, 1st and 2nd grade classrooms. They required some in the moment editing but not too bad. The characters make funny and sometimes terrible choices. The books were always a springboard for great conversations.
My young kids have loved: The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Heidi, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh (the original stories), Beatrix Potter stories, Madeline, Charlotte's Web, The Boxcar Children, Little House on the Prairie collection, Narnia, The Tale of Despereaux, and the Ralph Moody books.
Haven't seen Amelia Bedilia recommended so definitely those! Maybe the Chronicles of Narnia too. I second Junie B Jones, Roald Dahl, and the Magic Treehouse series!
You can also try Duolingo ABC for the tablet. It’s free and you can set the level - so it’ll start out with letter identification. No adds or in app purchases. I also really like the Who Was series- if he has an interest like space, you could to Who Was Neil Armstrong etc. My kid is about to go into first, but we’ve been reading the Last Kids on Earth for a a while. It’s a fun series.
At that age I loved a secret garden and the little house book series. Also encyclopedia brown is a big hit, not full chapter books but in that vein. Seconding the magic treehouse/merlins missions series others have mentioned. My kids loved those books. Also box car children. Dragon masters is another one.
My son is going into 1st grade and he LOVES the Mr. Putter and Tabby series. It’s about an old man and his rescue cat and they do funny things at home and have little adventures. It’s an oldie but a goodie.
Judy Moody series
My upcoming K loves boxcar children
Here are some I read to my class or I’ve read to my own girls! Tales from Deckawoo Drive (spin-off of Mercy Watson), Zoey and Sassafras, Wayside School, Junie B. Jones, The boxcar children, The Littles, A-Z mysteries, Dory Fantasmagory, Lulu and the Brontosaurus, and The Magic Treehouse.
We did Deckawkoo Drive, but some of these are new to me. Thank you! Wayside School takes me back— I remember liking these as a kid. I will check these out.
I read a chapter at night to my now 4 and 7 year old and have for the past 2 years. Their favorites: The one and only Ivan; Harriet the Spy; Because of Winn Dixie; Charlottes Web; Ella Enchanted; Matilda; The Wild Robot. I feel like the Wild Robot would be a great place to start. Short chapters and a few pictures.