Phonics reading list

Recommended text: First Reader.
Phonics reading list includes a list of beneficial books that can be read by a child learning by phonics. Large print is essential for a young reader (Century Schoolbook, 28-point font is ideal), as it makes an enormously beneficial difference in the ease of the child's reading.

Four defects in common children's reading material are these: print too small, grammatical errors, liberal claptrap (such as false promotion of evolution), and other depressing or violent content (even in Bible stories). Reading to the child is unhelpful; the child must do the reading in order to improve.

The key to teaching good reading skills is to set a word-total goal per day after completing the instruction book, such as the child initially reading an average of 600 words per day, and after a month or two increasing that to reading 1000 words per day. Some days will fall short, so it is good to try to read more on good days. Posting the daily totals on the refridgerator can become a very helpful incentive for all.

The following, with the easy-to-read large print, are freely or affordably available:

• First Reader - the 165-instruction book that should be used again and again, like a bible
• the Gospel of Mark (with merely a few omissions/changes for children as available here), starting with the simple Mark Chapter 1
• A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson (Dover, Children's Thrift Classics, "In Easy-to-Read Type," 1992) - a collection of 64 charming poems with many phonetic rhymes
• Great poems, which reinforce phonics with their rhymes, typically have good vocabularies, and are freely available, including:

• A Poison Tree, by William Blake
• Walrus and the Carpenter, by Lewis Carroll (this poem has some very funny lines for children - worth reading more than once)
• A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky, by Lewis Carroll (this poem is easy and short)
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost (available at his link here, and also here)
• The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll (this poem has multiple clever rhymes within lines, and a good nautical vocabulary)
• If—, Rudyard Kipling (voted the #1 favorite poem in England)

• The Prodigal Son
• The Wizard of Oz (retold by Samantha Noonan, Arcturus Publishing, 2021) (more suitable for girls, but there are three minor grammatical errors in this book).
• Call of the Wild (retold by Steward Ross, Arcturus Publishing, 2021) (more suitable for boys, and well-edited such that the first noticeable error is not until p. 51 out of 64, when the verb "were" is missing in "There no other signs of life.")
• Aesop's Fables - a good adaptation for children, with large print, is published by Barnes & Noble Books (New York: 1993)): The Aesop for Children (illustrated by Milo Winter), (originally by Checkerboard Press, Inc., 1919 and again in 1947)
• Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, preferably using a large-print, illustrated edition.
• The Wind in the Willows (retold by Samantha Noonan, Arcturus Publishing, 2021) (very polished, and interesting to a child with its use of animals, a car, and an escape from prison)
• Donald J. Sobol, Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective (published 2007, reading ages 7-10)

• some stories are better than others: the story about a knife in the watermelon is fun, while the story about a girl beating up a gang leader is absurd

• The Secret Garden (retold by Annabel Savery, Arcturus Publishing, 2021)
• Old Mother Goose and Other Nursery Rhymes ("A Little Golden Book," published in 1948 and again in 1988 by Western Publishing Company, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin 53404)
• Bible Stories for Children, retold by Geoffrey Horn and Arthur Cavanaugh, Illustrated by Arvis Steward (Macmillan Publishing Co. NY 1980) (easy-to-read print with artwork, but flaws in using this book for children include (i) its inclusion of the gruesome John the Baptist death, (ii) its exaggerated use of elderly images in its artwork, and (iii) its dilution of biblical facts, such as Jesus sweating blood during the Passion and demons actually cast out of victims).
• The Jungle Book (retold by Savior Pirotta, Arcturus Publishing, 2021)
• The History of Minecraft - if the reader has an interest in that popular program. This interesting article uses years, numbers, capitalization, possessive form, and other elements of style not learned from reading the Bible; this article is also good practice for the "ti" sound.

• Also good for Minecraft players is to read 5 open source alternatives to Minecraft

• excerpts from Shakespeare plays, such as Friends, Romans, Countrymen from Julius Caesar
• a collection of fun poems for kids

• Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face, by Jack Prelutsky
• Nonsense Alphabet, a poem by Edward Lear

• poems by Robert Louis Stevenson
• the United States Constitution, starting with its Preamble. The Constitution is filled with phonetic words. State constitutions, too.
• popular nursery rhymes
• public domain detective stories: the first three novels in The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon (The Tower Treasure, The House on the Cliff, and The Secret of the Old Mill)
• Sherlock Holmes works, all of which entered the public domain as of Jan. 1, 2023 - reading level is around grade 8
• Poems Every Child Should Know, by Mary E. Burt

More advanced authors

More advanced authors are:

• G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories (ages 8 to 12)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (Fable) and other poems by him
• Emily Dickinson
• C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia (rated at grade levels 5 or 6)

As Reading Proficiency Improves

• Level 4, Reading for Christian Schools (Bob Jones University)

• Tip: jump around in the reading assignments in this book, rather than getting stuck on a tedious or disliked passage
• While this book is terrific with Christian references, liberal bias has crept in. Examples include references to "President's Day" rather than the real "George Washington's Birthday" and a reference to how supposedly people are supposed to be environmentalists in order to please God. See O'Sullivan's First Law.

For Older students

• Tom Sawyer (retold by Saviour Pirotta, Arcturus Publishing, 2021) (features dialogue with deliberately poor grammar, and has a violent scene early in the book).

See also

• Illiteracy
• Literacy
• Mistakes Due to Lack of Phonics
• Phonics mistakes
• Book finder that estimates the reading level
• Classical Christian Reading list (unvetted for potential political bias)
• Bob Jones University Press - rigorous and independent of the university in content, but the print size can be smaller than some may desire
• Arcturus Publishing children's books, many of which are classics having a large, easy-to-read font