The best learning to read books you can't buy in stores

Dear Aunt Debbie,

In your last post, you included the text of one of my mom (your sister)'s awesome first-reader books.  A large reason I love these books, however, has to do with my mom's extremely expressive and wonderful line drawings.  With her permission, and a working scanner, I present to you two complete books: "The Cat and the Cab," and "Am I A Man?"

And the next:

You'll understand if, growing up with these books, I have very high standards for the rest of what's out there.

Love, Annie

Learning to read 4

Dear Annie,

I love the Flip-a-Word books!  Their publisher is phasing them out this year, which makes me quite unhappy.  A week or two ago, I bought up every copy of Snake Cake that I could find from suppliers, but they're going fast.  Harriet Ziefert, who wrote the books,  is a prolific and wonderful writer on many levels -- we've written about her non-early-reader books here and here.

The classic of this form of early reader has to be Dr. Seuss's 
Hop on Pop.  It's funny, it's frenetic, and it gets the job done phonetically:

ALL TALL

We are all tall.

[pictures of long skinny beings]

ALL SMALL

We are all small.

[pictures of little skinny beings]

Then there's one of the show-stoppers.  Excuse the imperfect illustration: my scanner's still on the fritz and this was the best I could find online:

SAD 

DAD

BAD

HAD

Dad is sad.

Very, very sad.

He had a bad day.

What a bad day Dad had!

Lots of rhyming, lots of changing only the first consonant of words.  And -- very important in the learning-to-read trajectory -- lots of HUMOR!  (note who's wearing a tie.)

We've received a number of comments on the
Bob Books, which are the 800-pound gorilla of the learning-to-read world.  They come in sets: a box with 8 to 12 booklets inside, depending on the reading level.  They're very methodical.  The first set sticks mostly with three-letter words, all capable of being sounded out.  The inside of the cover tells the adult what sounds the book will be presenting.

So for Book 1 of Box 1, the sounds are:

M m - moon

A a - apple

T t - table

S s - sun

And the text goes like this:

Page 1:

   Mat.

Page 2:

   Mat sat.

Page 3:

   Sam.

Page 4:

   Sam sat.

Page 5:

   Mat sat.  Sam sat.

Page 6:
   Mat sat on Sam.

Some kids will pick up booklet #1 and get it immediately and then just keep charging through the clear presentation of different sounds -- and before they know it they're readers.  In my experience, though, this isn't at all universal.  Equally as possible is a Deep Boredom reaction.   A child will get as far as the second "Sam sat" and walk away from the book.  Some of the stories are nothing but non sequiturs, and the sense of humor is thin. For some kids, box #1 is a jumpstart, and they're flying on to anything else they can get their hands on.  For others, they'll go through all five boxes before they're ready to explore more random reading choices.  As with everything else, you just have to see what your child reacts to.

I've always had this suspicion that my sister (your mother) is the person who really invented the Bob Books, and that someone more commercially-oriented created the ones that ended up with a copyright and publisher.  You mentioned that Eleanor has been practicing reading with some of the books Judy wrote as a reading teacher.  They're short, phonetically-oriented booklets, but full of a great sense of humor.  My memory of them is that in the days before the internet, she would xerox them and give them out to other teachers who wanted to use them (Judy -- ??).  Judy has both a great sense of humor and a lovely, funny artistic talent.  I can't reproduce the pictures here, but I will give the full text of The Cat and the Cab, by Judy Thoms.  Each line is a new page:

The cat has a cab. [picture: cat driving a cab, complete with little tree-shaped deodorizer]

The cab gets gas.

A man has a bag.

Cab! Cab! [man is flagging cab driven by cat]

The cab gets the man.

The cat gets the bag. [cat putting suitcase in trunk of cab]

Good-bye, cat.  Good-bye, man.  Good-bye, bag.  Good-bye, cab!

Good-bye readers, one and all.

Love,

Deborah

Learning to read: word families

Dear Aunt Debbie,

I'm finding Eleanor's first forays into reading fascinating, and also the first time in reading to my children that I've felt like I don't fully know what I'm doing.  I have no memory of learning to read, and aside from knowing that it involves memorizing some sight words and learning to sound things out phonetically, am not sure how to best teach and encourage Eleanor.

I've asked my mom (a reading specialist, and the person whose teaching is getting Eleanor to read at the moment) and a friend who teaches kindergarten and first grade (and therefore, reading) to guest blog in the next couple of weeks, so we can get some expert voices in here.

In the meantime, I hit the library shelves yesterday on my way home.  As you mentioned in your last post, the reading levels governing each series seem wildly different.  I picked up a few books which seemed feasible in the near future, and two which I knew immediately upon looking at them would work with Eleanor right now.

These are from the Flip-a-Word series, written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Yukiko Kido.  The idea behind each book is to introduce kids to "word families": words which end with two or more of the same letters.  The words are short, and within each family, they rhyme.  Once you get the end sound -- "op," "un," "an," "ig," etc. -- it's easy to change the first letter and be able to read a number of related words: "stop," "pop," "top," "cop" (Flip-a-Word:Stop Pop).

The illustrations are blocky and bold, and in each word family section, there's a page in the middle with a hole in it, so that the face on the bun is the same as the face on the sun, and the face on the boy in "run" is the same as the girl having "fun."  Each word is presented solo, then as part of a short phrase ("cop on top of pop") with an accompanying drawing.  The pigs with wigs in Flip-a-Word: Pig Wig are particularly funny.  At the end, there's a page with all the words in each family laid out together, and in each section one slightly more complex word joins them ("twig," "plan").  Finally, there's a page containing all the words used throughout the book, mixed up and in different colors and fonts.

Immediate buy-in from Eleanor.  The books are clear and simple enough for her to read aloud immediately, so there's a sense of mastery, and they're funny, so there's joy in the decoding.

I look forward to more ideas from you, too!

Love, Annie

Learning to read 2

Dear Annie,

First of all, those reading levels on the $3.99 I Can Read, or Step Into Reading, or Green Light Readers, or whatever, are not absolute.  Every publisher makes up its own series title, then sets standards for each of its levels, which vary widely.  An example from two wonderful books:

Harcourt's Green Light Readers define  Level 1 as "simple words - fun rhymes and rhythms - familiar situations."  Here are the first two pages of
Big Brown Bear by David McPhail, a starting reader I'm particularly fond of:

Page 1:

Bear is big.

Page 2:
Bear is brown.

About 80% of each page is a picture of Bear, his paint can, and his ladder. He goes on to climb the ladder with his blue paint, get bumped into by a little bear, fall and get covered with blue, wash up, obtain some green paint, and go back up the ladder, just as another little bear on a tricycle careens toward him.  "It's not over yet!" is the last line.

I Can Read, an imprint of Harper Collins, defines its Level 1 as "geared toward beginning readers who are just starting to sound out words and sentences on their own."  Here are the first two pages of
Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik (longer discussion of this great book here), another Level 1:

Page 1:

WHAT WILL LITTLE BEAR WEAR?

It is cold.

See the snow.

See the snow come down.

Little Bear said, "Mother Bear,

I am cold.

See the snow.

I want something to put on."

Page 2:

So Mother Bear made something 

for Little Bear.

"See, Little Bear," she said,

"I have something for my little bear.

Here it is.

The wonderful Sendak illustrations fill less than half the pages.

As with so much of parenting, you're stuck with having to figure out which books are best for your kid's particular stage.  I encourage parents to browse all brands and levels of readers until they find one that feels like it fits with where their child is.  Then you have a way to judge that publisher's offerings.  Virtually all publishers start with Level 1 as the simplest (although a few cheat with Level 0 or My First I Can Read), then add more difficult words and longer stories up through Level 3, 4, or 5. 

You're less likely to get a word that will completely stump an emerging reader in these books -- but you'll still run into a few thoughs or strengths.  HSW, commenting on your last post, talks about those old baby books kicking around the house as good starter books.  Both my girls felt like they'd cracked the reading code with different board books.  Anything that's simple and liked by your child is worth a try.

I spend a lot of time talking with parents whose children are learning to read.  I've never been trained in how to teach reading, like your mother, my sister.  Judy -- feel free to chime in here anytime.  But themes come up, and different books work well with different kids.  I intend to talk more about specific books, and also different approaches to learning to read, in future posts.

I want to end this one with some thoughts about how learning to read can look from the point of view of a child whose parents have been reading her really wonderful long books.  Going from The Secret Garden to "Bear is big/Bear is brown" can be a shock.  There are points when learning to read takes off and a child can make great strides in a few weeks, but for a while the books a child can read on her own are mostly going  to be a lot shorter and less complex.  One needs reassurance that progress will continue.  I've been aware of some kids who resist reading on their own because they fear losing all the specialness of being read to.  I strongly doubt that your girls will fall into this category.  But one of my little pieces of advice to parents is to say to your child, I will always read to you, no matter how many books you can read on your own.  Most grown-ups fully intend to keep reading aloud, but it doesn't hurt to dispel any little worries for your child.

Love,

Deborah

Learning to read!

Dear Aunt Debbie,

Thank you for those science series suggestions -- I'm looking forward to checking some of them out.  I have to admit, nonfiction isn't my strong suit as a reader myself or as something I seek out for my kids.  But it's something I'd like to explore more.

As I mentioned last week, Eleanor is really starting to learn to read!  She's been practicing with a few amazing short books my mom wrote and illustrated years ago (which I'd love to get published in some form), and last night read two of them to Isabel by herself to distract Isabel while I was cutting her fingernails.  Tonight, Eleanor received a letter from a friend of my mom's -- written to be aimed at her level -- and was able to read almost all of it herself. 

Taking a break from dress-up.  These girls are so ready to read.

So my question is, what should I be steering her towards next?  We have a bunch of Learning to Read series books, some Level 1, most Level 2 or 3.  But what comes even before that?  Are there any particularly good, very early readers that Eleanor can pick up right away?  Anything dreadful I should be steering the family away from?

Love, Annie

P.S. On the subject of repetitive books that can drive you crazy, I came across this blog post: If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, You're Fucked: 10 Tips for Avoiding Terrible Children's Books.  It made me laugh so hard I cried.

Science series

 Dear Annie,

Oh my.  Being a parent calls up such reserves of imagination, patience and love.  And a well-stocked bookshelf.  A wonderful way to get your point across.  One of Lizzie and Mona's wonderful pre-school teachers always referred to things like kids' tantrums and meltdowns as opportunities.  I would say you grabbed the opportunity on that one.

We've received a question about science books for the four-to-six (or so) crowd.  A number of  good series exist, so I thought I'd toss out a list:

The Magic School Bus, by Joanna Cole.  I'm a purist about these: I only carry the original books, which combine the wonderfully eccentric Ms. Frizzle, her students, the ever-morphing bus, and very brief papers written by students.  There was a TV show, and then chapter book "novelizations" of the show, but I'm talking about the so-called Classics here.  The bus turns into a different object (spaceship, submarine, beehive, etc) and puts the members of a field trip literally into whatever they're studying:

There's lots of wisecracking, lots of facts, and very busy pages.  I got into the habit of reading only the main story (that's the typeset part at the top center of above page) the first time through, then gradually adding the comments from students and the kids' papers on the lined pages on later readings.  My respect for the science of the Magic School Bus books went way up when Mona's seventh grade class used The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks as the basic text for their unit on water purification.

I've met a handful of families who have worked their way through most of the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series -- they come in both Level 1 and Level 2.  Both levels are readable in one sitting, and quite clear on whatever their topic.  They cover a huge range: Bugs are Insects, How a Seed Grows, From Egg to Chick, What Happens to Our Trash?, Volcanoes, Floating in Space, Why Do Leaves Change Color?, Oil Spill! The Moon Seems to Change, and on and on.  The inside covers of all of them list all the titles, sorted by topic.

The folks who own the rights to Dr. Seuss are putting out a series called The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library, aimed at kids starting around 3 or 4.  The titles play off Seuss's real ones: Inside Your Outside, There's No Place Like Space, Is a Camel a Mammal?, If I Ran the Rainforest.  It's all written in Dr. Seuss meter, which could eventually drive a parent nuts.

 Let's start at the top with 

your brain.  It is key.

It controls all you do --

helps you laugh, learn, and see.

It makes your legs move

when you run, jump, or walk.

It makes your face move

when you blink, smile and talk.

(the book goes on to explain muscles later.)


Then there's a biography series by Mike Venezia called Getting to Know The World's Greatest Inventors and Scientists. (He also does series on musicians, on artists, and on all the U.S. Presidents, should you be looking for a biography of Chester A. Arthur.)  They're a little cartoony, but explain the basics about the scientists' work as well as their personalities.  The series also includes both women and people of color.  Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Charles Drew (blood transfusions), Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Rachel Carson are among those there.


Love,

Deborah

Behavior modification through literature

Dear Aunt Debbie,

I'm glad to hear from you about the ways in which independent booksellers are resisting and working around Amazon.  It always cheers me to know that you are physically selling books to real people, and thinking actively about what your customers want and need.  Let's hope the resistance continues!

And speaking of resistance....

Eleanor has been very 5-year-old tantrumy lately, pitching fits when she doesn't get her way about small things.  This morning I found myself drawing on literature as a way to engage her with what she's doing, and convince her that she wants to stop.  This isn't a new tactic on my part: Violet Beauregard in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Lulu in Lulu and the Brontosaurus have long been characters we invoke in the face of spoiled behavior: Do you really want to be like Lulu?

This morning, I struck on Katherine Paterson's The King's Equal, which I wrote about here almost two years ago.  We've been reading it again lately, more deeply.  Prince Raphael and the goatherd's daughter, Rosamund, make excellent foils for each other.  Raphael is spoiled and ungrateful in outsized ways.  After his father, the king, dies, Raphael collects insane taxes from all of his subjects, has lots of pictures painted of himself, and closes all the schools, putting children to work, because he feels only he needs to be smart. (Eleanor finds this part especially shocking.)

On his deathbed, the good king decreed that Raphael could only officially inherit the crown when he found and married a woman as intelligent, beautiful, and wealthy as himself.  Raphael believes there is no such woman, and threatens his advisers with imprisonment and death if they can't find him a bride by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Rosamund is hiding in a shack in the hills with three goats and a magical talking wolf.  She is smart, kind, and grateful for the little she has (including a magically refilling small jar of grain), but Paterson manages to make her seem interesting as well.  After a time, the wolf tells her to go down to the castle and present herself as Raphael's bride.

Raphael declares her to be the most beautiful creature he's ever seen.  She proves her wisdom by telling him something about himself that even he doesn't know: that he's lonely.  And she proves her wealth by asking him whether there is anything he wants that he doesn't have.  Of course, there is -- lots.  Well then, she says, "perhaps you are poorer than I, for there is nothing I desire that I do not already possess." Ultimately, she proves herself to be more than Raphael's equal, and takes over the running of the kingdom while he goes off to spend a year with the goats, learning humility and how to bake bread.  When he returns, they are truly equals, and get to rule together.

I invoked Raphael and Rosamund this morning at the breakfast table, when Eleanor began to whine about walking to school instead of driving.  Which one do you like better? "Rosamund, of course!" Eleanor said, laughing.  And which would you rather be like?  "Rosamund!"  And what's Rosamund like?  We talked about kindness, and generosity, and more deeply about being grateful for what you have.  Eleanor seemed able to work through, in a way she hadn't before with this book, why Rosamund not wanting more than she has makes her wealthy.

And then we talked about what we have: enough food, enough clothing, loving family and friends.  "I have these Barbies, and I don't really even need them," Eleanor said.  Exactly.  And then we practiced: what do you think Rosamund would say if she didn't get her way about something little?  "Oh, well."  We ran through a couple of scenarios.  And the tantrum that had started ten minutes before dissipated.

I'm not saying Katherine Paterson is a magic bullet -- five minutes after this, Eleanor ignored all requests to put on her sneakers so we could go to school -- but it felt like a real working through of real issues, better than threats or pleading any day.

Love, Annie