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So I looked over the titles in the DITHOR level 2 book set (http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional2.php) and went over them with my son and there are some which he simply has no interest in reading. I don't feel strongly enough about the recommended titles to go to battle over them. I'd rather pick (mostly) books he's excited to read. So I'm looking to substitute some of them. I think I read somewhere that there are details in the DITHOR Teacher's guide "Getting Started" section. Do I need the DITHOR Teacher's Guide in hand before I can start selecting substitutions or are there guidelines I can use to get started so I can try to have everything ordered and arriving around the same time?

Obviously I know I'm looking for books in the 9 genres that are a reading level 3.0-4.1, but I noticed some genres have two books while others only have one listed. I was wondering if this is based on page length/word count? Or on something else?

So far I have or plan to purchase:
Biography- "Who Was Helen Keller?" by Gare Thompson (RL: 3.4)
Adventure/Fantasy- "My Dad The Dragon" by Jackie French (Lexile: 580) (I had him read the 1st chapter as a test and he handled it just fine.)
Historical Fiction- "Hannah" by Gloria Whelan (RL: 3.4)
Fantasy- "The Littles" by John Peterson (RL: 3.0)
Mystery-
Folk Tales-
Nonfiction- "One Small Square: Backyard" by Donald M. Silver
Humor- "Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?" by Jean Fritz
Realistic Fiction- "The Secret School" by Avi

TIA!

The number of days that a book is read is based more on the length combined with the difficulty of the book. So for instance, you have chosen Hannah for historical fiction which is only scheduled to be read 5 days because it is relatively short. So you would need to combine that with a book to be read for 10 days like Pioneer Cat. For Fantasy the Littles is scheduled for 10 days so you would need a shorter book like The Storm to read for 5 days. The idea is to have a nice amount to read each day but not too much. I looked in the teacher's guide and it says at level 2/3, the recommended time for a student to read aloud to you is 15 minutes. So you are looking for a pacing that is about 15 minutes of reading per day. The books and pacing that Carrie has chosen should work out to the pace of about 15 minutes per day, so if you choose your own books that would be the pacing for which to strive.

I see you haven't selected your mystery book yet. If you aren't going to read it as your read aloud for Beyond, you might want to consider Key to the Treasure by Peggy Parish. It's a fun book and the whole series is great. So if you do choose to read Key to the Treasure as your read aloud, you could always select one of the others for DITHOR.

I will offer this one, small piece of advice. I do believe it is important to select book choices that your ds will enjoy but often times a book is so much better when you get into it than it looks on the surface. I don't know if you've read the thread here on the board recently about the Benjamin West book but that is one that might not look appealing on the surface, but many dc have really enjoyed it. So, I would be careful about ruling out a book just because it doesn't look appealing at first look to your ds. The book choices that Carrie has selected are high quality books and have never disappointed my dc or me.

Thank you so much for the guideline info and the advice. There are some which I have chosen as a "you're going to read this because I've decided and I'm the teacher" but I'm also trying to give balance in letting him choose a fair amount as well. I'm running into the same situation with the read-alouds.

I actually just went over the DITHOR books with him again and between his daddy and I, we were able to talk him into a few more.

Here's the updated list of what I have or plan to purchase:
Biography- "Who Was Helen Keller?" by Gare Thompson (RL: 3.4)
Adventure/Fantasy- "My Dad The Dragon" by Jackie French (Lexile: 580) (I had him read the 1st chapter as a test and he handled it just fine.) AND "Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner (RL: 3.0)
Historical Fiction- "Hannah" by Gloria Whelan (RL: 3.4)
Fantasy- "The Littles" by John Peterson (RL: 3.0)
Mystery- "Treasure of Pelican Cove" by Milly Howard (RL:3.6)
Folk Tales- "McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm: Three Tall Tales" by Sid Fleischman and Quentin Blake
Nonfiction- "One Small Square: Backyard" by Donald M. Silver
Humor- "Capyboppy" by Bill Peet (RL:4.1) AND "Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?" by Jean Fritz
Realistic Fiction- "The Secret School" by Avi

My substitutions are in red. The changes from the previous post are in blue.

My DITHOR Level 2 reading choices, complete with RL / Lexile scores where I could find them.

Biography-
*"Who Was Helen Keller?" by Gare Thompson (RL: 3.4 / Lexile: 570)

Adventure-
*"Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner (RL: 3.0 / Lexile: 550)
* "Robin Hood" by Rob Loyd Jones (Lexile: 510)

Historical Fiction-
*"Hannah" by Gloria Whelan (RL: 3.4 / Lexile: 740)
*"My America - A Perfect Place - Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary" by Patricia Hermes (Lexile: 490)

Fantasy-
*"The Littles" by John Peterson (RL: 3.0 / Lexile: 460)
*"My Dad The Dragon" by Jackie French (RL: 3.4 / Lexile: 580)

Mystery-
*"Treasure of Pelican Cove" by Milly Howard (RL:3.6 / Lexile: 410)

Folk Tales-
*"McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm: Three Tall Tales" by Sid Fleischman and Quentin Blake (RL: 3.0 / Lexile: 630)
* "Town Mouse Country Mouse" by Jan Brett (RL: 4.0 / Lexile: AD530)
* "Stone Soup" by Marcia Brown (RL: 3.3 / Lexile: 480) *****May or may not use this one depending how quickly he finishes previous 2.

Nonfiction-
*"One Small Square: Backyard" by Donald M. Silver (RL: not listed)

Humor-
*"Capyboppy" by Bill Peet (RL: 4.1 / Lexile: 1030)
*"Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?" by Jean Fritz (RL: 4.0 / Lexile: 780)

Realistic Fiction-
*"The Secret School" by Avi (RL: 4.1 / Lexile: 540)