Brilliant First Reading Book (B Is for Books! - Annie Cobb)

Member Name: DavyMichelle

Product:	B Is for Books! - Annie Cobb
Date:	26/05/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple, Cleverly Written, Great Illustrations

Disadvantages: None

B is for Books is a really great early reading book for young kids of three to five years of age. It's from a series of books called "Step into Reading", is a level 1 book aimed at pre-schoolers, and it's available from Amazon for £2.77 if you want to buy a copy.

B is for Books stars Elmo and some of the Sesame Street gang. I know that Sesame Street isn't really popular, or even very well known with today's generation of early readers, but our grandson knows it from some videos and cuddly toys we had in the attic from our own kids. So he was instantly impressed to get given a book with Elmo on the front cover. I think most kids would like this even if they'd never seen Elmo before because he's such a warm, smiley character that looks like he's going to be good fun!

The book is really simple and very cleverly written to make it suitable for very young readers. It starts out with "B is for books, all kinds of books." and goes onto show an example per page such as "books about stars" and "books full of cars". Early readers can guess what the new words are on each page by looking at the first letter of the word and then checking the picture, our grandson found it really easy.

Also, I really like how they start by using the exact phrase "books about..." for the first half of the book, then shake things up by changing to "books full of..." and alternating between the two to make sure the kids are really looking at the words and not just memorising them.

Our grandson was reading this book pretty much fluently by the third time he'd seen it. He was a complete beginner just a few weeks ago, so I think that shows how cleverly written this book is that he's been able to manage it so easily, so quickly. It's an ideal book to start a new reader with I think. It's simple, easy to manage and has really great illustrations on every page.

Summary: Highly Recommended