Natascha's Story by Gill and Ashleigh James

 2024           

 

Natascha is forever falling off the piano and getting sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.

She is the smallest of a set of Russian dolls and envies her bigger sisters as they have more detail on them.

The family acquire a new vacuum cleaner and this time it takes Natascha to another world where she has an amazing adventure.  This seems very much like what happens in The Wizard of Oz. So is it all a dream and related to the story the mummy is reading to young Alfred? It’s left to the reader to decide.

She finds herself being sucked up by the new even more powerful vacuum cleaner and then returned to the piano to join her sisters. Young Alfred remarks that she has lace on her dress, pretty shoes and a tiny bracelet that he’s never noticed before.

The book is 53 pages long. The text is double spaced and ragged right. It uses a simple font that has easy ‘a’s and ‘g’s. There over twenty illustrations that both add to and clarify the story. 

 

Find your copy here 

 

 

      

Sigrid is Unique by Lotta Lundh and Nils Melander

2024           

Sigrid is indeed unique but she needs to work out why

She likes her room in a certain order. She finds it difficult to sit still in class.  She likes to read on her own. She’s good at drawing. There are only a few places she feels comfortable visiting. She doesn’t cope with noise well.  She isn’t all that comfortable with other people. There are only certain foods she likes. She needs help with many tasks that other people find easy. Her own thoughts bother her sometimes. She is very kind.

Is it any one of these qualities that makes her unique or is it all of them?

This book goes to great lengths to describe Sigrid’s predicament.

The illustrations work here as they would in a picture book for younger children: they show more of the story.

The text is set ragged right which makes it easier for an emergent reader. It also uses a font that resembles print and has simple ‘a’s and ‘g’s.   

There is information at the end of the book about the writer and the Illustrator.      

 

Find in our online store 

 

We Don’t Eat This by Sue Graves and Alan Brown

 

2020    

emergent reader, ages 5-7,  lower primary, animals, Graves  Sue, Brown Alan, Reading Champion, Green   

Jack and Ben are on holiday at a farm. The farmer becomes ill and the two boys volunteer to feed the animals. However they give the wrong food to the animals.  The farmer has to come and help them to get it right.  

We have an engaging story here and also some hints about caring for farm animals.

This is Green Reading Champion book which the publisher designates as being for Age 5+ and having approximately 450 words.  “There is now more text on each page, than on earlier levels, with some pages having no illustration at all. (However, in this book there are pictures on every page. )This gives the child opportunity to read like a reader across longer passages of text. You will see that where there are pictures, they may only depict one aspect of what is going on in the story, as the plots become more complex. Talking to the child after they have read to ensure they have understood is important here as the stories become longer and more detailed.”

 

“Green” is important. This shows where the child is on all reading schemes and a parent and teacher can be confident of this book is suitable for a “green” reader.  

 

The story is 65 pages long but the book has four pages of other text at the end. The text is formatted ragged right. The font is large and plain with simple ‘a’s and ‘g’s.

Illustrations mainly reinforce meaning though there are a few instances of extra story in the some pictures.  The pictures are two dimensional in comic book style, something the child also needs to   learn how to decipher.    

At the end of the book a series of picture invites the reader to retell the story. There are also two pages of notes for parents or guardians.

Find on Amazon

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.  

 

Find Fergus by Elizabeth Dale and Becky Davies

 

2020  

This is a very carefully written book produced by Reading Champions.    It is a turquoise band book.  This means that there is a fair amount of text on each page, with some pages having no illustration at all. This gives the child the opportunity to read like a more experienced reader across longer passages of text.  Where there are pictures, they may only depict one aspect of what is going on in the story, as the plots become more complex.  They illustrate. They don’t offer extra story.

Imran loses his toy rabbit; he is not able to sleep without this rabbit.  The story shows us how he finds it and what happens next.

The text is ragged right.  The font is plain and quite large. It has simple ‘a’s and ‘g’s. 

Two pages at the end of the book offer suggestions to adults as to how they might use this book with their children.

There is a picture quiz for the reader; they are asked to put the captioned pictures in order - in effect creating a story board of Imran’s adventure.

 

Find you copy here 

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.  

Hatch by Jill Atkin and Emma Latham

 

2019 

This tells the story of a family of blackbirds. The parents build a nest.  There are three eggs. The mother and father take it in turns sitting on the eggs and fetching food for the other one.  The eggs hatch. The young birds soon leave the nest and learn to fly.   

The text is aimed at the very early reader and is part of Badger Learning’s Reading Scheme. This is in Blue Band 4. It is published by Franklin Watts.  The books are quite expensive for parents or even schools to buy but I obtained mine form the local library. It may be worth looking there for texts like this one.

Although a parent or teacher may monitor the choice of the child, according to what they know about that child’s reading ability, if the book is picked up from the library or chosen from a book box in the classroom the new reader will have the feeling of making their own choice about what they read.

The story is just nineteen pages long with only a little text on each page. Some pictures are integrated, others are blocked.  The pictures both illustrate and supplement the text.

The text is ragged right. Significant chunks of language are grouped together with extra line breaks separating them.

The font is clear with simple ‘a’s and ‘g’s.   

The end papers include a section on advising the caring adult how to work with the child.   

Aunt Amelia by Rebecca Cobb

 

2014

Aunt Amelia comes to look after the children.   She looks formidable – not least of all because she looks like an alligator. Yet she proves to be a lot of fun.  Mum and Dad give her a list of what the children should and shouldn’t do.  Aunt Amelia completely ignores this.  They all have a lot of fun but order is restored before Mum and Dad return.  

The pictures are full of extra activity which provides more story and talking points for the adult and child reading the book together.  In spades. No wonder Rebecca Cobb has been a Waterstones Children’s Picture Book Prize Winner.

The text is verges on being an emergent reader text.   The subject matter is quite high level and the pictures and text are integrated in a quite sophisticated way. The font is plain and so would be easy for an emergent reader to decipher.   

It’s certainly a text that a child and adult can read together.   There are some very rich extra stories in the pictures.

The end papers reflect Aunt Amelia’s dress.