Jolly Stories: In Precursive Letters (British English edition) (Jolly Phonics) Board book – 1 Sept. 2007

This book is excellent. It teaches your child the phonetic sound of each letter and set of letter blends, which is vital for learning to read. It has a really sweet story which goes with each letter sound, and really bright colourful pictures. Each letter sound and blend have a hand action with them which makes this learning fun. My son asks me frequently if we can read 'jolly stories'! I would really recommend this book to parents wishing to give their pre-schooler a headstart in learning to read. As a primary school teacher I think this book is fab!

I bought it for my nearly 4 years daughter. very good phonics book. I like the volume too. My daughter loves my reading book for her, and she is just understanding phonics. Story is fun too. But not just educational reason, there are so many things(objects, animals, incests etc) to see in one page, and find things starting from S in phonics S page for instance. and lots of more images to find. Even we could just find and point out those images for fun when not up to read main story.

I bought this book as my son has just started preschool where they will be using the Jolly Phonics system of learning to read. The great thing about the book, is that it doesn't seem like learning and the information seems to be going in without too much chivvying! We read the book each night before bed, go through the (well-explained) system to learn the sound and he is definitely picking it up. I think this is a great book to help underpin what will be taught formally at school.

Update 08/11/2021 : my son is now 5 and a half and I feel like I should do a more updated review. Because some of my mummy friends whose children were only 2 or 3 said that their child was already recognising alphabets and blending small words, I had been very keen to introduce phonics to my very clever son. Like I previously mentioned, stories in this book are absurd and it never held my son’s attention. Art work isn’t great either. The only redeeming factor about this book is that a child/or adult can roll their fingers on alphabets and ‘feel’ them and that it breaks down the sounds of English language phonetically. Thus making it a good starting point for any parent who doesn’t know much about phonics (I was thought to read through whole word approach). My son is now 5 1/2 and picked phonics from Alphablocks (TV program) and from the read write inc. method that his school follows (read write inc. is similar to jolly phonics in that instead of introducing alphabets to a child it talks about phonic sounds which a child can use to blend in order to form words and read) We do sometimes look at this book to ‘feel’ the alphabets. So my advise to any first time or a clueless but keen parent like me would be this : don’t worry if your mummy friends say that their 2 year old is recognising alphabets and blending and reading/writing dictionary at 3. Have fun with your child, talk a lot with them and read lots of stories. Show them Alphablocks when you need coffee and lunch break. I promise when they are ready they will pick up phonics and read like a pro. And if you still feel keen to buy this book, do buy it - at the very least it will give you some idea of what synthetic phonic sounds of English language are.**Previous review : Like most parents, I am just a keen parent who wants to give their child the best start in life. I bought this book because we thought at 3.5 years, it was time to introduce phonics to our son who despite being very clever is not interested in anything to do with alphabets/sounds or numbers. I like that the book is hard cover and pages are thick, pictures vibrant (and relevant) even though the stories are very weird - My son hasn’t been interested in the book so far, but I am sure when he is ready he will get a lot out of this book. Until then I will wait.

I bought this for my 5 year old son, 4 year old daughter and 22 month old son to help them with phonics. ALthough their school (the older 2, obviously) doesn't use Jolly Phonics, the kids seem to love the book. Even my 22 month old is delighted by looking at the pictures and listening to the sounds. The big letters on each page are textured, which my 4 year old daughter seems to love. I would recommend this to anyone with kids who are learning to read. No gripes at all...

I was really impressed with the content of the book. It follows the school curriculum, using the same sounds and symbols as are taught in class. The stories are funny and held my 5 year old sons attention which was a definate plus. It has raised letters in the book for children to trace over with their finger to practice how to write the letter. Each page focuses on a different sound.

Really, I words can't describe how amazed I am with the Jolly method. It is amazing how clear it is.My daughter is so good at writing and reading with this methode, it's impressive and she's only 5 !Well done really. To me, this is the perfect method.The kids can feel the letters with the tip of the finger. Then there are few simple words for them to read, them more complicated ones. You can use this book as a bed time story book and then, two years latter, it will be your own kids reading the book to you.I love this book.

only read the first story so far with my 4 year old but I'm already impressed. worth getting it compliment you child's Jolly phonics at school if they follow that system. my daughter is hesitant to sound out and blend although she reads the words fine visually - but this book gets all the practice and learning in as part of a story and so she is more involved, and less resistant. lots of mini games and extras to do on each page for each sound. can see in working for boys too, as there is lots on each page to try so will suite a variety of children. arrived quickly too. thanks