A Great Early Read (Phonics Readers: Ted's Shed - Phil Roxbee Cox)

Member Name: DavyMichelle

Product:	Phonics Readers: Ted's Shed - Phil Roxbee Cox
Date:	19/05/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable for Little Readers, Well Written, Not Too Tricky

Disadvantages: A Bit Long for Absolute Beginners

Ted's Shed 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.

This book is one that fits in about the middle of the series as far as difficulty goes. I wouldn't recommend it for complete beginner's, but I found that a child who had learned a few of the basics got a lot out of reading this.

It's a really good story with a clear purpose unlike some of the other titles from this series. Ted is doing some building, he's modifying his red shed. On the very last page we see what Ted was doing to his shed: did we spot Ted's clever plan? He'd turned it into a caravan!

It was a really rewarding read for a small child who'd only just recently started learning to read. He found the story easy to follow and was really amused and satisfied with the ending.

The text isn't too difficult, and they've kept punctuation to a minimum in this book. The pictures are bright and friendly with lots of attractive animal characters included. I thought the interactive lift-the-flap pages in this book were very good too as they had a real purpose. What I mean is that in some of the other books in this series, the flaps were there just for the sake of having them. In this book, there was something worth lifting them to discover.

This isn't ideal for a child who hasn't done any reading at all, as there are a few sentences per page and it would probably take them all night. But it's perfect for a young child who already knows a couple of key words and is getting the hang of sounding out new phonetic words without too much bother.

Summary: Highly Recommended