Something About Libby: New Readers

Whether your child is just starting to read or you are working on your English-language skills, Plano Public Library has eBooks for you. With your Plano Public Library card, you have access to Libby, an app that has our collection of eBooks, audiobooks and digital magazines. You can search for a book, download it to your phone, tablet or computer, and start reading in minutes. If this is your first time using Libby, see our Getting Started Guide.

Print books are amazing – of course we love them, we’re the library! But we also appreciate the convenience of digital books that you can access at a moment’s notice. In this post, we’re focusing on books for our newest readers and which eBook and audiobook collections might be a place to start.

Phonics

When you learn about phonics, you are learning to correlate sounds with letters or groups of letters. Reading about and understanding phonics can be an important step for new and struggling readers to work toward fluency.

We have more than 230 phonics books in the Libby collection! Each book focuses on certain sounds, which are noted in the book when you read the sample and/or borrow it.

Many of these books have teaching tips for caregivers and educators, like the image to the left.

Read-Alongs

Read-along books are titles that include audio narration! This allows readers to follow the audio portion with the written book, and it a great way to increase understanding of new or unfamiliar words. This collection is full of well-known characters, such as Pete the Cat, Spongebob Squarepants, Pinkalicious and even Disney characters. There are more than 700 titles in this collection!

Beginning Readers

This collection is similar to the Junior and Early Readers you will see on the library shelves, with many familiar faces: Frog and Toad, Fly Guy, Henry and Mudge, Sesame Street and Disney. There are even non-fiction titles in the Beginning Readers!

On the book covers and in the descriptions you will see numbers 1-4 in a colorful circle. Each one of these numbers corresponds to a level of reading skills:

Level 1: Beginning Reading – short sentences, familiar words and simple concepts for people eager to read on their own. For those who are beginning to sound out words and sentences.

Level 2: Reading with Help – engaging stories, longer sentences and language play for developing readers who still need some help. For those who are increasingly confident, but still need help.

Level 3: Reading Alone – complex plots, challenging vocabulary and high-interest topics. This includes many fun subjects, historical fiction and other themes like friendship, adventure and science.

Level 4: Advanced Reading – short paragraphs, chapters and exciting themes. For those who are on the road to becoming book lovers and fully independent readers.

As a reminder, you can check out up to 10 items at one time on the Libby app and place 10 holds. While you’re reading, be sure to add these books to your 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten list!

Happy reading!