Your child is ready to add first chapter books, but a wall of text still shuts them down. This trail is the gentle path: seven small steps that add words a little at a time until a chapter book feels easy — with picture books always welcome alongside.
What rises across these books is how much text is on the page and how long the story runs — a little more each step, with pictures and humor keeping every page friendly. Step 1 is almost all speech bubbles; step 7 is a true chapter book with one story that runs all the way through. Nobody skips steps — each kind of book should feel easy before the next.