A Charming Little Intro to Reading (My Dad is Brilliant - Nick Butterworth)

Member Name: DavyMichelle

Product:	My Dad is Brilliant - Nick Butterworth
Date:	07/08/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting, Good Concept, Appealing

Disadvantages: Pricy for such a Simple Book, Big Words

My Dad is Brilliant by Nick Butterworth is one of two books that worked their way home to us recently, alongside 'My Mum is Fantastic'. You can get a copy of this book for £4.49 from Amazon, though we were lucky to be given a copy for free.

My Dad is Brilliant is a book for children aged three years and over, and is probably suitable for early readers up to around seven or eight years old as well. Ideally, it's suitable as a book to read aloud to young children so that they can look at the large print words as you go. It helps to encourage early reading skills without their having to actually try to read themselves.

The text is quite short and printed in a large font too, so competent readers could manage this short story, as our grandson can (5yrs). But do be aware that there are some rather complex words in here such as "marvellous" and "instrument" so it's obviously not designed as a first reading book. There are a lot of repetitive snippets though, such as "and he's..." which those who are new to reading might pick up on. It helps them to realise that the same letter formations will make the same sounds every time - which is after all the very principal of reading!

The pictures in here are simple but appealing. Each double page spread gives us a few lines of text telling us why Dad is so brilliant, and is accompanied by a picture showing us Dad doing amazing things like baking marvellous cakes, or building a complicated treehouse. It's an enthusiastic and over-the-top book that will encourage kids to get excited over the story. It's a great way of encouraging a young love of books.

I'm not sure this is fantastic enough to warrant a price tag of nearly five pounds, but I do think it's one to have in your kid's home library if you get given a copy or buy it as part of a set or deal. It's appealing, enthusiastic, fun and has large text to help youngsters start to recognise one or two basic key words as you read it to them. This is definitely a book to share with those preparing to read, rather than for use as an early reading book though.

Summary: Recommended