Your Guide to Beginning Chapter Book Series for New Readers

It’s a whole new world when readers are ready to move into beginning chapter book series. For many kids, this is a time when they start to read voluminously.

Book series are wonderful for new beginning chapter book readers for several reasons.

The characters are familiar from book to book. Kids don’t have to navigate learning about the characters and setting. They can instead focus on enjoyment and get to know the characters on a deeper level.
If a child like the first book in a series, he will be motivated to read more in the series. This, in turn, helps with fluency and building a love for reading.
It can be difficult to find multiple books that are at that sweet spot for being just right so a book series provides lots of content for kids to enjoy.

Below you will find some great beginning reader chapter book series for kids who are ready to step into chapter books.

The best beginning chapter books have large text, lots of white space, and picture support.

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Cowgirl Kate & Cocoa by Erica Silverman

There is a strong female lead and it will appeal to kids who love animals. The chapters are short and typically contain 3-4 in each book. Text length is about 8 sentences per page and contains heavy picture support.

Cynthia Rylant is an amazing writer of picture books and beginning chapter books. Here are three series tailored to our very new beginning chapter book readers.

Poppleton

The chapters are episodic and contain animal characters. The text length is about 6 sentences per page with lots of picture support.

Mr. Putter & Tabby

The book has people and animal (cat) characters. There is a mix of a few sentences on each page to lengthy wording on a page. Lots of blank space helps to not make the text overwhelming and there is also picture support.

Henry & Mudge

The book has people and animal (dog) characters. There are about 6 sentences on each page with lots of colored illustrations throughout the book.

Little Bear Books by Elsa Holmelund Minarik

This is an older but well-loved series about bears with personalities. The text on each page is longer, but there is some picture support on each page. The chapters are episodic.

Katie Woo by Fran Manushkin

Has an Asian female lead. There are about 3 chapters per book. The text size is large with colorful picture support. Also, check out Manushkin’s Pedro series.

Young Cam Jansen by David A. Adler

Young Cam Jansen books are told in about 5 chapters. The story is filled with lots of dialogue and not too much text on each page. The books are full of picture support also.