Fox on a Box is another book from the Usborne Phonics Readers series for 3-5yr olds. It retails at £4.99 individually but you can get it as part of a box set for a discounted price usually if you prefer. I got the box set including twelve titles from the Usborne Phonics Readers series for £9.99 from the Book People. I'm reviewing all of the titles that we own so please see my other reviews if you're thinking about buying any of the titles from this series.

Fox on a Box takes us on a little journey with a comical cartoon fox and his box. He's got his box from the outset, and the story focuses on what he can use his box for. He tries to stand on it to reach things, but falls off every time with results that will amuse little readers. He tries to sit on it, but a duck comes along and pulls him off. Then he tries again to stand up on it but this time he doesn't fall off, he falls in it. Luckily he finds there's a good reason to be in the box - it's got a cake in it!

This book is really fun for little readers. I don't think it'll help them out too much with phonics, as the words are mostly repetitive and surrounded by confusing punctuation too. So I think this is another one from the series that is best used as either a story book, or for helping early readers to commit a few key words to memory. They make good use of repeated expressions in this book, such as "hungry fox" and the fact that he keeps getting on the box rather than using it in too many different ways. That all helps to get early readers to memorise some words, even if it isn't making great use of the new phonics system.

There are a few lift-the-flap pages in this book which is great for getting kids interested, and the illustrations are simple but bright and attractive. The font size is sufficient for little readers to see clearly, though the style of font is again not ideal. I don't think funky fonts are a good idea for beginners but maybe that's just me.

I think all in all this is a funny little book that our grandson really enjoyed. I don't rate it very highly as an early reader book, but it's certainly worth having as a story that you can share with a little one in the hope that they'll start to pick up a word or two as you go. I'd rate it three and a half stars out of five if I could.