Syllable Divided Books.

In the 1700s and early 1800s, students were typically taught using a syllabary and a speller, such as Webster’s Blue-Backed Speller. By the time they completed the speller, students could generally read well enough to tackle any text—often their first was the King James Bible. 

After mastering spelling, students would progress to a reader, where words were sometimes divided into syllables to aid decoding. Parker’s First Reader is an example of such a syllabicated text. By the late 1800s, many stand-alone books were published in this style, often with titles including the phrase "In Words of One Syllable."

These books are useful for both beginner and remedial readers. Reprints of Josephine Pollard’s one-syllable books, The Life of Washington and The History of the United States, are available on Amazon.

For free options, you can download and print several one-syllable books from Google Books. One standout is Lives of the Presidents—it’s informative, and you can print sections for one or two presidents at a time.