Primary school teacher Cathy at Chez L’Abeille recently reviewed two of our new yellow and blue band Early Readers publishing this month:
‘One of the longest standing debates in the teaching of reading must be the reading scheme vs. “real books†one. Over nearly 35 years of being involved in the teaching of reading, this one has rumbled and rumbled. Being a realist, I was always aware that the barrier to reading a published picture book independently lay in the complexity of the written words and this remains the main stumbling block.
Maverick have grasped this nettle and are building a deliciously appealing set of banded reading books which combine both the aesthetics of a picture book, yet have the graded vocabulary required to match a child’s developing decoding skills. The colour bands used to grade the books are derived from the “Book Band†system, developed by the Institute of Education, and used widely in schools to match books across the many existing schemes. I’ve been a long-standing devotee of the book bands, as they give teachers a short hand system for judging the relative difficulty of a book. In my day job I work with primary schools and this includes the moderation of reading assessments in Reception and Year. At times like this, being able to judge a book by its cover comes in very handy!’
About Jim and the Big Fish (yellow band) by Clare Helen Welsh she said:
‘It is a charming story with a seaside setting…. There are simple sentences and speech bubbles which feature easily decodable words, perfect for the developing reader. The usual quiz is at the end of the book to support recall skills.’Â
About Little Scarlet’s Big Fibs (blue band) by Katie Dale she said:
‘This is based on the traditional Red Riding Hood story but with a great twist that will get children laughing! There is an increase in the number of sentences on the page, which will build reading stamina, but the reader is still supported by decodable words to help fluency. Small illustrated clues also give the reader information about just what Little Scarlet is up to and why Granny isn’t getting her treats.Â
Once again the high production values and quality of the writing shine through in both books and I think these are a great addition to the Maverick Early Reader scheme.’
Thanks, Cathy!
Read the full review here.
Buy copies of the Early Readers here.