Great for helping your child learn to read. (Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Pat Posner)

Member Name: gsparkle

Product:	Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Pat Posner
Date:	28/03/09 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The books are educational and fun.

Disadvantages: There aren't any.

"Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a well known book that I'm sure most of you would have read when you were younger or hear of. The story is retold by Sue Graves and illustrated by Priscilla Lamont. The reading consultants are: Betty Root and Priscilla Lamont. You can buy this book from Marks and Spencer there online site is www.marksandspencer.com. The books cost £3.00 each or at the moment they are offering 3 for 2 on them. I would say the books are suitable for children aged 2 and over even though they won't be able to read them at that age they will still enjoy hearing the story.

The book is part of The First Readers series other books in the series include: Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread man, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and many other children classic fairy tales books. The First Readers books help beginner readers enjoy their favourite stories. You will be able to share the main story with your child and help them more familiar with the pictures and words. The layout of the book makes it simpler and easier for your child to learn.

The book is hardback and on the front page there is a picture of Goldilocks in bed with the three bears around her. The first page says 'This book belongs to' and there is a space for you to write your child's name. Ideal if they take the book to school so they don't lose it. The next page is just the title of the book then after that there is some information on First Readers which points out that the books are closely linked to the National Curriculum and the vocabulary in the book is selected from the word lists recommended by the National Literacy strategy. It then shows some examples of how you can make the book easier for your child to learn and some pointers on how to maybe read it to them. These include: Read the story, follow it with your finger, look at the pictures, have a go (getting your child to attempt short sentences. Then lastly by encouraging them to join in reading them

The main story is set out on each left page of the book. Then on the right hand page it has the main parts of the story summed up in a sentence. For example the first sentence says 'Once there were three bears' the next page says 'The three bears went out'. The text on the right is slightly larger then the main text on the left. This will help your child read it and the sentences being shorter will make it easier for them. Each page is set out the same following the story of Goldilocks in the three bear's home. The sentence on each page remains simple and will have your child learning it in no time. After the story there are two pages which get your child to look back over the book. They try to get your child to learn to read a few words that are mentioned throughout the book like mummy bear, daddy bear and baby bear. It also has a few questions for your child to answer like 'what did Mummy bear bake?' etc.

There are illustrations throughout the book and they are lovely. They blend in with the story perfectly and aren't to bright. You can see a lot of detail has gone in to them. They describe what's going on well and they have put a lot of detail into the expression on the characters faces throughout the book so you can see what's going on. I think the books are great as they help your child to understand the story and get them involved with reading it. They are very educational and great starter books. My daughters have a couple of these books and I'll definitely be getting them some of the others.

Summary: Overall great books for your child.