Love 2 Learn.net

Grade / Age level:

Review:

The Bob Books and subsequent titles (five sets of small reading booklets in all) are sets of very small, stapled booklets with black and white line drawings and colorful covers, which contain very simple stories. They are approximately $15 per set (although I've seen them at Sam's Club and Half-Price books for less). Each set comes in a colorful box with two little cardboard finger puppets and a cardboard puppet theatre. Although the booklets can hold up pretty well through several children (if you keep them from the little ones, since each book is generally read only once), the puppet theatre and finger puppets, and even the box, will probably not survive long in a busy homeschool family. Although I hesitated for quite awhile to purchase these books because I prefer stories with more beautiful pictures and more meaningful text, I have, in the end, found these books to be quite useful tools in teaching and encouraging reading and motivating children through some of the more tedious stages of getting comfortable with reading. They also fill a need. If you look at early readers at the public library, you will be hard pressed to find anything (except perhaps a bit of Dr. Seuss, who I don't care for all that much) that starts out at such a simple level.

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Bob Books First!

Author(s):

Bobby Lynn Maslen

John R. Maslen

Number of pages:

12 pages

1976

ISBN:

9780439145442

Publisher:

Scholastic Books

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

In this first set (originally titled simply "Bob Books"), the stories start out very easy (words like Bob, Sam, sat, etc.) and very gradually increase in difficulty. All letters are introduced except "Q" and the stories are made up almost entirely of three-letter-words. We found the pace and order in which new words were introduced to be very helpful. We have used the Bob Books to teach two of our children to read. They were both interested in learning to read when they were four years old. After they had worked a bit on learning the basic sounds of the alphabet, we found this first set to be an easy and rewarding practice for little eager readers. My daughter started this set at age four and finished it early in her Kindergarten year. My son started the set at about the same age, but took a little longer to complete it. Although I try to encourage my children to finish what they start (which generally means finishing a small book at one sitting), there are times when things go much more smoothly when I learned to follow the pace that was appropriate to their needs.

Additional notes:

Set contains: 12 stapled softcover booklets of 12 pages each

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Bob Books Fun!

Author(s):

Bobby Lynn Maslen

Bobby Maslen

Illustrator(s):

John R Maslen

John Maslen

Number of pages:

12 pages

1999

ISBN:

9780439121989

Publisher:

Scholastic Books

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

This second set was just released and wasn't around when I taught my oldest to read. Although she did fine without it, I thought that the additional practice on this basic level was very helpful for my son (who has just finished this second set). Like the first set, the stories are designed entirely for the purpose of practicing beginning reading skills by introducing sounds in an intelligent order. The stories are very simple and usually quite silly. This set does introduce several two-letter phonograms - "ar" (book 3), "aw" (book 3) "ow" (book 4), "ou" (book 7), "oo" (book 12).

Additional notes:

Set contains: 12 stapled softcover booklets of 16 pages each

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Bob Books Kids!

Author(s):

Bobby Lynn Maslen

John R. Maslen

Illustrator(s):

John R Maslen

Number of pages:

10 pages

1996

ISBN:

9780439145466

Publisher:

Scholastic Books

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Formerly titled Bob Books Plus! I did not have this set when teaching my daughter to read, but have just started using it with my son (we picked it up at Sam's Club at a discount and thought it would be helpful for additional reading practice and confidence-building). The stories include practice of words ending in "y" and "ed" and the introduction of more two and three letter phonograms.

Additional notes:

Set contains: 10 stapled softcover booklets of 16 pages each

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Bob Books Pals!

Author(s):

Bobby Lynn Maslen

Illustrator(s):

John Maslen

John R Maslen

1987

ISBN:

9780439145473

Publisher:

Scholastic Books

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Formerly titled More Bob Books This series provides practice lots of with two-letter consonant blends (such as "nt", "nd" and "dr"). Book six introduces words with long vowels ending with a silent "e". The books increase in number of pages and number of text lines on each page quite a bit as this particular set progresses. While using this series with my daughter, we started running through the phonogram cards (from The Writing Road to Reading) each day. I introduced (and explained) spelling rules as they came up in the stories from this set.

Additional notes:

Set contains: 4 stapled softcover books of 16 pages and 4 of 24 pages

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Bob Books Wow!

Author(s):

Bobby Lynn Maslen

1987

ISBN:

9780439145022

Publisher:

Scholastic Books

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

This set provides practice in words with long vowels ending in a silent "e" and phonograms with long vowel sounds (such as "oe", "ee", "ea", "ai"). While my daughter was working her way through this set of books, we continued drilling the phonogram cards each day (in a somewhat Montessori style) and discussed spelling rules as they came up in the stories. By the time we got to the later books in this set, Jacinta was anxious (and fairly able) to start reading other types of books. We skipped the final book in this set and began reading the Primer from the Catholic National Readers.

Additional notes:

Formerly titled Even More Bob Books.

Set contains: 4 stapled softcover books of 16 pages and 4 of 24 pages

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

1998-99

Little Angel Readers

Author(s):

Linda Bromeier

Publisher:

Stone Tablet Press

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

The Little Angels Series are four soft cover readers that teach all phonics sounds using word drill pages and phonetic stories. It teaches letter-sound relationships systematically, beginning with the easiest letter sounds. The word drill pages provide practice in decoding words containing the letter sounds. The stories with phonetically-controlled vocabulary follow each word drill page. They provide practice in decoding words in context and build comprehension skills. The stories are about Catholic family life, Bible stories, and Saint stories as well as fables and folk tales. The illustrations are well done and many are in color. Review pages are provided at regular intervals.

The workbooks are consumable and accompany the readers. They reinforce the lessons from the readers with exercises in phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension and handwriting.

The Teacher's manual provides detailed lesson plans and suggestions for related activities. The manual provides daily lesson plans for teaching the entire series. The lessons cover reading readiness, phonics, listening skills, vocabulary, handwriting, comprehension and spelling. There are also multi-sensory activities included to accommodate children who have different learning styles. The pace is very flexible so you progress at *your* child's speed. The manual also contains progress test after each review to assess how well your child is doing.

Sequence of Phonics Reader A - Consonants, short vowels Reader B - final blends, -ed, -ing, long vowels, two-syllable words Reader C - Beginning consonant blends, Y as a vowel, Consonant digraphs, R- controlled vowels Reader D - vowel digraphs and diphthongs, soft c and g, Irregular sounds and spellings

The author holds a MEd in Reading from the University of Missouri-St Louis and is certified in Learning Disabliites. She has six years classroom experience and nine years experience in home education.

I am using the Little Angels in place of the MCP phonics that Seton sends with their First Grade Curriculum. If you need something for Kindergarten, with beginning sounds and letter recognition, I highly recommend Seton's Kindergarten Phonics for Young Catholics. I have had great success with the Little Angels series with my daughter who is now finishing Reader D. She is 8 years old. My son who is 7, could not wait to start the readers and is also on Reader D. The Little Angels Phonics Series is really a wonderful tool for teaching your children to read.

Reviewed by:

Nanette Haliwell

First reviewed:

2-10-01

Little Stories for Little Folks

Catholic Phonics Readers

Author(s):

Nancy Nicholson

2004

Publisher:

Catholic Heritage Curricula

Binding:

Softcover

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Little Stories for Little Folks is a Catholic phonics readers set that offers an inexpensive alternative to the Bob Books. The entire Bob Books set (5 sets of booklets retailing for approximately $15 each) costs about $75 retail. In contrast, Little Stories for Little Folks costs about $25 for the whole program. While the Bob Books and other readers might turn out to be helpful for some families (and are available at some libraries), many families have been very grateful for this charming Catholic set at such a good price.

The Parent's Guide offers steps to prepare your child to read by using the enclosed flashcards (printed on card stock) to gain letter and sound recognition and then proceeding to work on pre-reading blends (with the pre-reading sound blend sheets that are included in the program and printed on card stock). After these steps are accomplished, the child will be ready to proceed to the phonics readers. The parent's guide also offers discussion questions to help your child get more out of each story.

There are four sets of readers, each set being identified by its own color. The booklets and flash cards come as an 8 1/2 x 11 pad. Each booklet starts out as a regular-sized piece of paper which you fold into four to form a child-sized booklet.

Level 1 contains 15 booklets. The story titles are: "At Mass", "Stop! Hot Pot!", "Sad Nip", "Mud on the Rug", "The Hot Pup", "Mom Gets Help", "The Rat", "Little Ann", "Bat the Ball", "Funny Ann", "The Campers", "God With Us", and "Messy Room".

This set starts with simple words such as "pat" and "sat" and progresses slowly to more complex words like "tent", "small" and "under".

Level 2 contains 10 booklets. The story titles are: "Dad's Cake", "Mrs. May is Sick", "Mike's Bike", "Visit the Sick", "We Hope to See the Pope", "The Little Goat with No Sense", "The Cold Rain", "Feed the Hungry", "The Tease", and "Noon Potluck."

This level starts with words like: "cake" and "taste" and progresses to words like "salad", "baby" and "table".

Level 3 contains 10 booklets. The story titles are: "Ann Cleans the Church", "Blessed Sacrament", "St. Paul", "A Toy for a Boy", "At the Beach", "The Found Rosary", "Run the Race", "School, Where?", "The Quake", and "I Didn't Know".

The starts with words like "kneel" and "holy" and progresses to words like "receive" and "neighbor".

Level 4 contains 10 booklets. The story titles are: "The Bright Star", "The Caught Calf", "Mr. Brown's First Holy Communion", "Kim's Adoption" (in two parts), "In the Match Box", "Badge Fudge", "Squirt", and "Our Lady's Secret".

This level starts with words like: "night" and "follow" and progresses to words like "cheerfully" and "enough".

Perspective:

Catholic

Additional notes:

Set contains:
22 page softcover parent's guide, set of 45 booklets, 47 flashcards

Copyrights 1998/2004

Donated for review by Catholic Heritage Curricula

Reviewed by:

First reviewed:

11-18-02

Little Stories for Little Folks

Catholic Phonics Readers (additional review)

Author(s):

Nancy Nicholson

2004

Publisher:

Catholic Heritage Curricula

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

Perspective:

Catholic

Additional notes:

4 levels, 45 stories to fold into booklets, bound Parents' Guide, Silly Willy Sentences activity, and Catholic flashcards on stiff cardstock

Reviewed by:

Ana Braga-Henebry

First reviewed:

3-15-2007

Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series, Set 1 (Ant Books)

Book cover: 'Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series, Set 1'

Author(s):

Laura Callahan Busch

Number of pages:

144 pages

2001

ISBN:

0760728925

Publisher:

Michael Friedman Publishing

Subject(s):

Grade / Age level:

Review:

This beginning reader set provides young students with small activity booklet/readers that can be read at a very primary level. The author combines simple words that can be read phonetically with one or two sight words in each booklet that the child will learn to recognize (words like: "look", "go" and "the"). I thought the illustrations were more appealing than those found in the Bob Books.

A number of the stories include a blank to insert the reader's name and a few family names into the story. I thought this was a clever idea since many children to learn to write and recognize their own name even before they are reading. There are also little puzzles, word-and-picture matching and writing practice.

The "Ready for Reading" booklets are very appealing to little children (who always seem to love little books, especially when they come in a neat package), and I'm sure there are many four and five year olds who would delight in having these little workbook sets for their special schooltime. Even as I write, my almost-five-year-old has been asking and asking for me to finish reviewing these books so that she can use them and color them in.

Using "Angela" as an example of the reader's name (that the reader or parent can fill in), these are the titles of the booklets - "The Angela Book", "Angela Can", "Angela's Family Book", "The Pig is in the Mud", "The Big Hat", "Little Christina" (younger sibling name to be filled in), "Is it a Cat?", "Yes-No Workbook", "Go to Bed", "Treasure Hunt", "Dog is Fed", "Angela can Bat".

The booklets have glossy, color covers and black and white illustrations that could be colored in by the child. The text includes teaching suggestions in small print right alongside the student work! These include helps for common problems that children run into.

Additional notes:

12 softcover booklets 12-16 pgs. each + parent's guide in a box

Donated for review by Barnes and Noble at request of author

Reviewed by: