Things to Look For
VISUALS, VISUALS, VISUALS!
Can your student look at the illustrations and understand what the meaning of the text is? Illustrations are so helpful in assisting all students to find meaning and understand the words on the page.
VOCABULARY!
Can you look on the pages and find 1-2 words every other page a student might not know the meaning of, might need help reading and sounding out, or might want to talk about? Then this book is right for your student to learn from! If It has 3 or more words on every other page that the student will not immediately understand, It will more easily cause frustration. In this case, you can pre-teach vocabulary, or build up to this book with others. Feel free to continue to introduce more challenging books- but be realistic about teaching them!
RELATABILITY!
Is there a character in this book your child can relate to? Do they look like your child, are they the same age, are they a creature related to your child's special interest? Do they have the same favorite activities as your child? Make sure the student can see themselves in this book in order to make reading engaging and fun and something to look forward to, rather than a chore they have to do.