Now I'm Reading! Level One: Animal Antics

I highly recommend these books by Nora Gaydos for parents who are teaching their child to read at home. My son has known the sounds of all the letters and has been able to sound out three and four letter words with short vowel sounds since he was three. I thought he would be an early reader, but at age 5 now he has not liked any books we have tried as beginning readers until now. He became so bored with the Bob Books, McGuffey's primer, Step into Reading books, etc... that he started pretending he didn't know the sounds anymore. He still loved me to read to him, though, but he would not try to read by himself.Then I ordered these books a few days ago and amazingly, he was so intrigued by the illustrations, he sat down and read three of them straight through to me. He has never been a fan of stickers, but for some reason, the incentive to place a sticker inside each book when you finish reading it really has appealed to him. We got the Animal Antics and the Playful Pals sets two days ago and he has already read five of the books three times each by himself! I am so amazed and excited that he is happy about reading again.These books are very well done. They follow a good phonics program, with funny stories that actually make sense. The illustrations are superb and really get the child interested in what is happening in the story. I wish I could give these more than five stars! I also recommend the other Level 1 books called Playful Pals. The books are a little smaller but the stories are different and continue in the same vein as these Animal Antics. Both sets contain 10 readers each. You could do the first five of each set first, which are easier, and then the second five of each set. Happy Reading!

It is so hard these days to find interesting books that focus on phonics AND child confidence that don't have an overwhelming number of undecodable words. This book is a treasure if you are looking for a program focusing on beginning phonics (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) and Consonant Blends and Sight Words in a format that your child will enjoy while building up confidence. Each soft cover book is about 5" by 5" and has about 10 easy reading pages that slowly builds up the sentences with each page, (e.g. A cat. A tan cat. A tan fat cat.) yet is still able to hold a story (e.g cat loses a race but his friends still clap for him). The books are Fat Cat, Hot Dog, Pig Jig, Rub-A-Dub Cub, Wet Legs, Crab Trap, Frog Cops, Fish Gift, Stuck Duck, and Elk Yelps. My daughter is so happy to be able to say she can read a book without help! It truly builds up their confidence and is exactly what reluctant beginning readers need. The set comes in a nice little hardcover case, easy for readers to carry around, and has individual see-through pockets to keep each book safe in or insert the back flaps to make one big book, and has a magnetic closure tab, to keep it all together and give kids that special-book/diary type of feel so they'll want to take it to bed. It also comes with a list of questions for kids, parents advice book and stickers. The illustrations are simple, funny and enjoyable. I am so happy I found this indispensable teaching tool! Highly recommended!

I bought these for my Grandson for Christmas! He's loves them! They come with stickers for the child to put in the book. The Parent reads it, then they read it together, then he reads it on his own--there is a sticker for each time it's read! Makes him excited to read!!!

I just discovered this author and what a nice set of easy reader books. I will be adding more of these to my library as I am teaching children to read at my day care. Very sturdy books. Each sentence as a couple more words, but then around page 5 or so the sentence changes. Challenges beginner readers to pay attention to the words. But still not too difficult.

This is a good collection of easy readers for beginning readers. The stories are entertaining and colorful.

My Granddaughter loves these little books. They are just long enough to make her feel accomplished when through reading one. She is 5 years old.

A gift--they liked it.

I love the scaffolding these books allow. My 3 year old has three books she is so proud to read!