Easy Readers
Graded readers or "easy readers" are books for children that are designed to support the process of reading mastery. They often feature larger typeface with plenty of white space, short sentences, limited vocabularies that draw heavily from sight words, and are often designed to be more similar to chapter books. While picture books are often wide with broad spaces for detailed images, easy readers are often design with pages in "portrait" layout, in line with the idea that these books can bridge a child from picture books to chapter books.
While the format, size, and layout of easy readers remains rather consistent across the genre, the topics, style, and level of difficulty vary greatly among authors, illustrators, and publishers. In earlier days, reading primers sought to relay simple childhood stories with easy to understand storylines and simple names. The most well known among these early primers was the Dick and Jane series which provided an iconic shared experience for school children from 1930 through 1970. Fun with Dick and Jane was written by Wiliam S. Gray and Zerna Sharp and was published by Scott Foresman. These days, the series is abrasively dated and problematic, not only because of the blindingly white caucasian cast of characters, but also because of the cringeworthy name, Dick.
The legacy lives on, Penguin Young Readers continues to publish early readers with Dick and Jane adventures.
A recent version was published in 2004 with a suggested age range of 6-7 years old. The books do have a vintage nostalgia about them, but it's hard to imagine that this is ideal for today's young readers.
However, it's important that we remember that Fun With Dick and Jane was once fresh. The books depicted children at play and helping out at home as well as anthropomorphized animals. Children could relate to the stories, the sentences were short and used a limited vocabulary of site words, and repetition was used extensively to increase young reader confidence.
In 1957, Theodore Geisel published The Cat in the Hat under the pen name, Dr. Seuss, and added a world of imagination and whimsy to early readers. His goal was to counteract the tiresome reading primers with a more entertaining book--both visually and with a fantastic story. Published by Random House, the book was a huge commercial success and opened the door to children's reading primers as visually entertaining reads.
These days, easy readers cover a broad range of tones, topics, storylines, characters, levels, writing, and design. Most easy reader series are leveled by the publisher, but these "levels" can vary greatly between publishers and genre.
The Biscuit books, which are part of the I Can Read Series features a playful puppy and levels from the easiest "My First" books through levels one to four. These books are very reminiscent of the attraction of Dick and Jane books of yesterday. The puppy is sweet and playful, his antics are easily relatable for children and the language is simple, repetitive, and easy to grasp.
"This is Biscuit.
Biscuit is small.
Biscuit is yellow"
"Woof, woof!
Biscuit wants to play."
In comparison, the Marley books, which are also part of the I Can Read series by Harper Collins, have a distinctively modern bent. The Marley books are based on John Grogan's books and have been reworked to present the beloved, and often frustrating, Marley, into simpler stories that accommodate beginning readers.
Both Biscuit and Marley books strike the modern reader as old fashioned both in the Rockwellian illustrations of domestic suburban life as well as the heavily sweet storylines. Marley may be frustrating when he tracks paint through the house in Marley Messy Dog, but the story still manages to be sweet and patient, "Oh, MESSY DOG, MARLEY!" said Cassie.
The easy reader books that portray pets are often overly sweet, which may not suit all readers.
A great departure from staid primary readers is the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems. Willems also creates a more comedic story in a format that has clear influence by comic strips and puppetry. Almost all of the text is in dialogue bubbles. This allows the child to understand implicitly which character is speaking. The text is sparse and uncluttered as quotations, "he said" and "she said" words, and line breaks are no longer necessary. The story is almost entirely carried my the clean, cartoonish images. In My Friend Is Sad, published in 2007 by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group, we can see how the dialogue can be pared down to the simplest elements while the illustrations carry the drama.
"Gerald."
"Piggie!"
By Gerald's enthusiastic smile, body position, arms in the air awaiting an embrace, with wiggle lines to emphasize his excitement, the reader immediately understands that Gerald is delighted to see Piggie. Piggie, on the other hand, has a sad look, he gazes downward, with arms limply at his sides, and the reader immediately knows that Piggie is upset. Willems also plays with font and font size so that there is little need to explain the action. This is a very effective way to entertain the reader while giving a reader a sense of accomplishment. With minimal words, a reader can finish an interesting book about two friends managing conflict.
In comparison, the Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold, which seems to attract the little boys, is refreshingly irreverent. Here, the characters are garishly cartoonish. The main character, a boy, aptly named Buzz, has a pet fly. Together the boy and his pet fly have outrageous and funny adventures. The pictures are often high contrast images, lined in broad ink. The images bleed off the page, there are abrupt changes in scale. The tone is blunt and proper English is often dispelled with altogether. In Buzz Boy and Fly Guy, which was published in 2010 by Scholastic, Inc., we can see how the text, the images, and even the metallic foil cover art is loud, obnoxious, and unapologetically in your face.
"WITH HIS SUPERSTRENGTH BUZZ BOY TURNED THE DRAGON AROUND."
"FLY GUY USED HIS SUPERLOUDNESS."
"THE DRAGON WOKE UP AND SHOT FIRE OUTSIDE."
For the most part, the sentences are still very short and vocabulary is limited to easier sight words, but the books offer a graphic and all-caps one, two, punch. Lines are often slanted, words are often bolded or in all caps, there are many close ups of the pet fly's blood shot eyes. The images often carry the humor. There is a dynamic, frenetic, energy that is likely to engage the antsier child.
Beyond animals, a few easy readers capture warm stories in simple language. Cynthia Rylant has authored a few beloved series in this category. Mr. Putter and Tabby and Henry and Mudge are among some of her popular titles. Rylant's stories are strong in that they are accessible and sweet in a way that is attractive to children, but the stories don't condescend to the reader. In Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat, published in 1990 by Simon & Shuster Books For Young Readers, Henry and Mudge are devastated when the stray cat they care for is returned to the proper owner. Sucie Stevenson's illustrations are clean, comedic, and impassioned.
The book's text is challenging for the "level two" Ready To Read series. The sentences are often long and more complex than level two from other publishers. The stories, however, are heartwarming and honest in a way that is unique from other easy readers. When a found cat is returned to the proper owner, Henry and Mudge are devastated. Henry is drawn in bed with fat tears and Mudge is eating his sorrows on the floor.
"Henry's father and Henry's mother had to give them both extra hugs."
For the girlish readers, there are many easy readers that cover unicorns, princesses, Barbies, and frillier treatments of mainstream topics. Within the I Can Read series, Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy are both spin offs of popular picture books. These books are great opportunities to engage a child to learn to read by offering an easy reader with characters and storyline cut from beloved and iconic tales. There is an entire world of Star Wars easy readers for the Star Wars buffs. What is noteworthy about the Fancy Nancy series is that difficult and challenging vocabulary words are offered as "Fancy words" from Nancy's world of frilly and fancy things which is a great way to introduce challenging vocabulary within the idiosyncracies of the heroine. Jane O' Connor, the original author of the picture book series, writes the easy reader series and the artwork is "based on" the artwork of the original illustrator, Robin Preiss Glasser. For an easy reader, the flaws are evident when a successful picture book is reworked into an easy reader. The sentences are overly complicated, there are parenthetic remarks throughout the book, text often runs into artwork, and the vocabulary is expansive. You do not get the sense that there was much adherence to sight words.
Across all of the easy readers we've touched upon, a common theme is that there is very little diversity, happily, the nonfiction section offers a better selection. In particular, DK Reader, does a wonderful job incorporating diversity on their covers and in their stories. I Want To Be A Gymnast by Kate Simkins shows a diverse group of girls in various exercises and positions. A Trip To The Dentist by Penny Smith also features a diverse cast of characters. In both books, the words are sparse and the photographs are positioned almost like small diagrams, leaving plenty of white space for text. Nonfiction is often easier to read than fiction because conventions of dialogue can be completely abandoned.
The Wildlife Conservation Society puts out an eye-catching series out about animals as an I Can Read Book. Both Amazing Sharks! published in 2005 and Amazing Snakes! published in 2006 are written by Sarah L. Thomson and published by HarperCollins. The books feature up close photographs of animals. While the full bleed images of habitats create excitement and an eerie mood of being underwater or in a cave, this technique often requires the text to be in knock out type. This can affect readability.
Tedd Arnold offers a nonfiction series published by Scholastic titled Fly Guy Presents. Here the images are also photographic closeups with some bleeds and dark backgrounds, but the framing of the action within comic conventions of drawings and backgrounds actually increase readability while maintaining interest, and entertainment. See how effectively the technique is used here in Fly Guy Presents Sharks, which was published in 2013. The text is in clear, easily recognizable "handwriting" font on a lined background. Dynamic images and comedic drawings punctuate the photos. Note the irreverence. The arrow points as a nostril identifying it as "nose." The Fly Guy character is superimposed on a photo of a shark and they seem to eye each other comically:
The world of easy readers covers a broad range of interest and styles. It's important to remember that the reading levels are not consistent. It is better to use an understanding of the child's reading level and seek the help of a librarian or flip through a book to better grasp how well the book will be received. Unfortunately, a cursory round up of easy readers reflect a lack of diversity in this genre. Many argue that easy readers focus on anthropomorphic animals and object, but even these animals and objects often have all white cast members. There are some strong books in this category that do a better job promoting a broad world view, but they weren't readily apparent at the local library. Often, a backhanded diversity is present in supporting cast members as in Fancy Nancy's sidekick, or Amelia Bedelia's classmates. While the amount of diversity is very week in this roundup, there are some great easy readers that do a better job of portraying our world. This post was based on a review of the available easy readers at my local library. It begs a follow up with modern points of view.
While the format, size, and layout of easy readers remains rather consistent across the genre, the topics, style, and level of difficulty vary greatly among authors, illustrators, and publishers. In earlier days, reading primers sought to relay simple childhood stories with easy to understand storylines and simple names. The most well known among these early primers was the Dick and Jane series which provided an iconic shared experience for school children from 1930 through 1970. Fun with Dick and Jane was written by Wiliam S. Gray and Zerna Sharp and was published by Scott Foresman. These days, the series is abrasively dated and problematic, not only because of the blindingly white caucasian cast of characters, but also because of the cringeworthy name, Dick.
 |
| Fun with Dick and Jane |
However, it's important that we remember that Fun With Dick and Jane was once fresh. The books depicted children at play and helping out at home as well as anthropomorphized animals. Children could relate to the stories, the sentences were short and used a limited vocabulary of site words, and repetition was used extensively to increase young reader confidence.
 |
| The Cat in the Hat |
In 1957, Theodore Geisel published The Cat in the Hat under the pen name, Dr. Seuss, and added a world of imagination and whimsy to early readers. His goal was to counteract the tiresome reading primers with a more entertaining book--both visually and with a fantastic story. Published by Random House, the book was a huge commercial success and opened the door to children's reading primers as visually entertaining reads.
These days, easy readers cover a broad range of tones, topics, storylines, characters, levels, writing, and design. Most easy reader series are leveled by the publisher, but these "levels" can vary greatly between publishers and genre.
The Biscuit books, which are part of the I Can Read Series features a playful puppy and levels from the easiest "My First" books through levels one to four. These books are very reminiscent of the attraction of Dick and Jane books of yesterday. The puppy is sweet and playful, his antics are easily relatable for children and the language is simple, repetitive, and easy to grasp.
"This is Biscuit.
Biscuit is small.
Biscuit is yellow"
"Woof, woof!
Biscuit wants to play."
In comparison, the Marley books, which are also part of the I Can Read series by Harper Collins, have a distinctively modern bent. The Marley books are based on John Grogan's books and have been reworked to present the beloved, and often frustrating, Marley, into simpler stories that accommodate beginning readers.
Both Biscuit and Marley books strike the modern reader as old fashioned both in the Rockwellian illustrations of domestic suburban life as well as the heavily sweet storylines. Marley may be frustrating when he tracks paint through the house in Marley Messy Dog, but the story still manages to be sweet and patient, "Oh, MESSY DOG, MARLEY!" said Cassie.
The easy reader books that portray pets are often overly sweet, which may not suit all readers.
A great departure from staid primary readers is the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems. Willems also creates a more comedic story in a format that has clear influence by comic strips and puppetry. Almost all of the text is in dialogue bubbles. This allows the child to understand implicitly which character is speaking. The text is sparse and uncluttered as quotations, "he said" and "she said" words, and line breaks are no longer necessary. The story is almost entirely carried my the clean, cartoonish images. In My Friend Is Sad, published in 2007 by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group, we can see how the dialogue can be pared down to the simplest elements while the illustrations carry the drama.
"Gerald."
"Piggie!"
 |
| My Friend Is Sad |
By Gerald's enthusiastic smile, body position, arms in the air awaiting an embrace, with wiggle lines to emphasize his excitement, the reader immediately understands that Gerald is delighted to see Piggie. Piggie, on the other hand, has a sad look, he gazes downward, with arms limply at his sides, and the reader immediately knows that Piggie is upset. Willems also plays with font and font size so that there is little need to explain the action. This is a very effective way to entertain the reader while giving a reader a sense of accomplishment. With minimal words, a reader can finish an interesting book about two friends managing conflict.
In comparison, the Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold, which seems to attract the little boys, is refreshingly irreverent. Here, the characters are garishly cartoonish. The main character, a boy, aptly named Buzz, has a pet fly. Together the boy and his pet fly have outrageous and funny adventures. The pictures are often high contrast images, lined in broad ink. The images bleed off the page, there are abrupt changes in scale. The tone is blunt and proper English is often dispelled with altogether. In Buzz Boy and Fly Guy, which was published in 2010 by Scholastic, Inc., we can see how the text, the images, and even the metallic foil cover art is loud, obnoxious, and unapologetically in your face.
 |
| Hi! Fly Guy |
"FLY GUY USED HIS SUPERLOUDNESS."
"THE DRAGON WOKE UP AND SHOT FIRE OUTSIDE."
For the most part, the sentences are still very short and vocabulary is limited to easier sight words, but the books offer a graphic and all-caps one, two, punch. Lines are often slanted, words are often bolded or in all caps, there are many close ups of the pet fly's blood shot eyes. The images often carry the humor. There is a dynamic, frenetic, energy that is likely to engage the antsier child.
Beyond animals, a few easy readers capture warm stories in simple language. Cynthia Rylant has authored a few beloved series in this category. Mr. Putter and Tabby and Henry and Mudge are among some of her popular titles. Rylant's stories are strong in that they are accessible and sweet in a way that is attractive to children, but the stories don't condescend to the reader. In Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat, published in 1990 by Simon & Shuster Books For Young Readers, Henry and Mudge are devastated when the stray cat they care for is returned to the proper owner. Sucie Stevenson's illustrations are clean, comedic, and impassioned.
 |
| Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat |
"Henry's father and Henry's mother had to give them both extra hugs."
For the girlish readers, there are many easy readers that cover unicorns, princesses, Barbies, and frillier treatments of mainstream topics. Within the I Can Read series, Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy are both spin offs of popular picture books. These books are great opportunities to engage a child to learn to read by offering an easy reader with characters and storyline cut from beloved and iconic tales. There is an entire world of Star Wars easy readers for the Star Wars buffs. What is noteworthy about the Fancy Nancy series is that difficult and challenging vocabulary words are offered as "Fancy words" from Nancy's world of frilly and fancy things which is a great way to introduce challenging vocabulary within the idiosyncracies of the heroine. Jane O' Connor, the original author of the picture book series, writes the easy reader series and the artwork is "based on" the artwork of the original illustrator, Robin Preiss Glasser. For an easy reader, the flaws are evident when a successful picture book is reworked into an easy reader. The sentences are overly complicated, there are parenthetic remarks throughout the book, text often runs into artwork, and the vocabulary is expansive. You do not get the sense that there was much adherence to sight words.
Across all of the easy readers we've touched upon, a common theme is that there is very little diversity, happily, the nonfiction section offers a better selection. In particular, DK Reader, does a wonderful job incorporating diversity on their covers and in their stories. I Want To Be A Gymnast by Kate Simkins shows a diverse group of girls in various exercises and positions. A Trip To The Dentist by Penny Smith also features a diverse cast of characters. In both books, the words are sparse and the photographs are positioned almost like small diagrams, leaving plenty of white space for text. Nonfiction is often easier to read than fiction because conventions of dialogue can be completely abandoned.
 |
| Amazing Sharks! |
Tedd Arnold offers a nonfiction series published by Scholastic titled Fly Guy Presents. Here the images are also photographic closeups with some bleeds and dark backgrounds, but the framing of the action within comic conventions of drawings and backgrounds actually increase readability while maintaining interest, and entertainment. See how effectively the technique is used here in Fly Guy Presents Sharks, which was published in 2013. The text is in clear, easily recognizable "handwriting" font on a lined background. Dynamic images and comedic drawings punctuate the photos. Note the irreverence. The arrow points as a nostril identifying it as "nose." The Fly Guy character is superimposed on a photo of a shark and they seem to eye each other comically:
 |
| Fly Guy Presents SHARKS |
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