After 3 yrs of lessons I've graduated from big note to Easy Piano books. Very exciting to have more choices! What are your book and arranger recommendations? (My preference is for words n chords in pops books.)

Excellent news! Check the easy piano arrangements of your favorite songs. I personally like the Faber supplementary materials. They have different level books for different genres like rock, jazz, blues, hymns, Christmas, etc.

Good luck!

thanks. I was thinking about pops collections since buying single titles is so expensive.

any other suggestions?

If you like them the Beatles' loves songs are a great place to start to learn simple pop and lite rock accompaniment patterns. The progressions are simple, overall, and the melodies are nice and easy to remember. I have this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Songs-Beatles...les+hal+leonard

Just beware that "Easy piano" doesn't always mean the same thing. Some is easily within the scope of late beginners / early intermediate but some is more late intermediate, depending.

I like Dan Coate's arrangements - he has very nice arrangements at an easy level (just check it doesn't say Advanced on the front cover!). For instance, check out his Decade by Decade series.