Learn to Read
the Wholesome Way
Keen-to-Read Books
FEEDBACK AND OUR LEARNING-TO-READ BOOKS
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The Bright Beginnings Childcare Centre, in Papamoa, New Zealand have been trying out some of our books. Here is what the Manager, Val Murphy and her teachers have to say about them.
My teachers and children have been using the books.
So far the books have been a hit with our three and four year olds. (The Childcare
Centre caters for children under 5 years of age) The pictures and colours are attractive.
The books light to hold and easy to handle. The repetition and progression is working
well to encourage them to read for themselves. The quality is good and we have no
damaged books as yet, which often happens with books.
Children can use the pictures
to tell the story as the picture relates well to the words.
The simple books have been good for the children and even a three-year-old boy can read Ted’s reader, ‘I Disappear’ (This reader focuses on the words I am here).
The children love it when they can interact and read the words. One boy went on to draw Ted (from Ted’s Tales) and then drew an I beside him on his piece of paper.
'The Plane That Was Too Scared to Fly" (Story Time) has too many words (as readers) for our age group, but they do enjoy it as a mat time story. In saying this though, a four-year-old girl was very proud of herself for reading the words 'I am going to fly'. The bold lettering gets their attention. The children like the feel of the slightly raised text in this book.
Val Murphy, Manager, Bright Beginnings Childcare Centre, Papamoa, New Zealand
“I have two small children, Leah who is 5 & ¾’s and Lillian who is 3 & ½. Both children LOVE the Keen-to-Read books. Both children like the cartoon-style of the books and their bright, bold colours. Leah quickly warmed to “Ted”, the little boy who is leaning new words at school. Every time we read a book in this series to her, she recounts some reading/learning activity that she has recently done in school which the books remind her of. She is fascinated that she can read books that Ted is reading, such as “Me and The Bee”.
Lillian is very attracted to the shorter books, like “Me and The Bee”, “That Word Me” and “What Am I”. She has begun to recognise a few words in having had these books read to her – words like “look” and “me” and “bee”. She loves helping to find the fairy’s wand at the end of “Me and The Bee”. Leah is now capable of reading the shorter books to Lillian – which I have particularly liked as it creates a positive reading interaction for both children to enjoy together.
This set of books is very cleverly designed to get children thinking about words, colours and concepts – a little reminiscent of some of the better Dr. Seuss books – where a word with multiple meanings is used in various settings or words and colours are associated to make the reader think about what they are reading. These are a great resource for parents at home wanting to encourage pre-schoolers and young primary school children to read.”
Lewis Graham
"The books are fabulous - thank you. Mara (almost 3 years old when she got the books) loves them! She loves the repetition and finding the one missed ( ie the words Ted forgets to wash off in That Word I and That Word am) at the end of each story. I think they are a great way of learning individual words and love the illustrations.
The books are still a favourite with both of the children (Mara 4yrs & Caleb 2yrs ) now. One of them gets read at least every second night.”
Vanessa Dewhurst, Australia.
“Although these books are targeted towards young children whose L1 (first language) is English, I, who have tried out these books with my children,(3½-year-old twin boys) would say they are also great books as supplementary materials for kindergarteners in L2 (second language) learning. P.S. In most schools in Macao and Hong Kong, ENGLISH is one of the major subjects.
My boys just love the story time, and are willing to read aloud words they recognize and those they don’t really know.”
Karen Chiang
Macao
"I have read the first book with Zach (3 yrs old) and he caught onto the idea straight away and was pointing out the word I by the end of the book. Zach has taken the book to show his playschool/kindergarten teachers. He is very proud of it."
Bev Major, Dance Teacher, Glendene, New Zealand.
That Word I
“Keeno, this is a lovely book. The poem tells a great little story with tons of reinforcement of the word I. The pictures are very good too. The end page is VERY cute!
Those Words I am here is a very clever piece of work that integrates some smart reinforcement of the reading process (eg that each word is a word and the sentence says something different when you take pieces away).”
Graeme Beals
Alex’s favourite book is the ‘look book’. (Ted’s Tale My Word Look). On her own accord, she has copied Ted and has drawn the owl time and time again. She also writes the word look and owl on her pictures by herself. Here is one of her pictures.
(See left column)
Sandra Thompson, High School Teacher.
“I read That Word I, That Word am, and That Word here, to my granddaughter when she was 4 years old. She picked up the words quickly and could differentiate between the words I, am, and here by the time we had read the 3 books. She had fun joining in and particularly loved emphasizing the word am. She read these tales over and over again every night. I recommend these books to help children learn to read in a fun and relaxing way.”
Gail Coker
The Plane That Was Too Scared To Fly.
“I have purchased a copy of this delightful story by Keeno Reade for my grandson who is 7 years old.
This book appealed greatly to me due to the excellent use of vocabulary throughout, its expressive illustrations, good sized text and the repetition of the lines
“ I AM GOING TO FLY.
I AM GOING TO FLY.
I AM GOING TO FLY.”
This story I feel will be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, both young and old.
It will be a favorite with small children who will love its engaging illustrations and appealing story as it is being read to them.
As the children develop their own reading skills, I feel the story will have been such a favorite they will return to the book and enjoy reading it by themselves.
I wish Keeno every success with her writing and look forward to many more publications from her in the future.”
D.E.Swainson
Previously, a reading recovery teacher.
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