Welcome to the
I Can Read! Feast for Beginning Readers Round-Up for the month of February 2012. This monthly meme, created by Terry Doherty of
The Family Bookshelf, celebrates easy readers and illustrated chapter books to encourage kids working to become successful readers. It's not too late to join in! If you have a link to share related to beginning readers, please comment below, and I'll add it to the round-up. (I'll accept links through Friday evening - after that, hang onto your posts for next month!)
On to the contributions...
JENNIFER of Jean Little Library shares the review of
Zig and Wikki in the Cow she posted on a recent Non-Fiction Monday.
At Literatea,
BETSY has reviews of
No. 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke and
On the Go with Mr. and Mrs. Green by Keith Baker.
JESSICA highlights the following reviews from Vegbooks, "a resource for parents and teachers who want to support the vegetarian and vegan kids in their lives.":
At The Cath in the Hat,
CATHERINE reviews
Bad Kitty for President and
Ivy and Bean: No News Is Good News.
ANDREA, who blogs at
Roving Fiddlehead shares a link to her library's Staff Picks Blog, where she recently reviewed
Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke.
Welcome to the
I Can Read! Feast for Beginning Readers for the month of February 2012. This monthly meme, created by Terry Doherty of The Family Bookshelf, celebrates easy readers and illustrated chapter books to encourage kids working to become successful readers.
All this week, I'll be collecting your reviews and other posts related to books for beginning readers. Please comment to this post with a link to your contribution, or send me an email at
[email protected]. On Friday, I will post a round-up of everything you submit.
Don't have time to write something new? No problem! Anything posted in the last year - since February 2011 - is eligible. Need more information on easy readers and chapter books? Visit Terry's informative post
here. Hosts are needed for the rest of the year! Click
here to sign up as a host for any month, March through December.
I look forward to reading and sharing your submissions!
A big warm welcome to this month’s celebration of early literacy, easy readers and short chapter books! The I Can Read carnival is all about sharing finds, approaches, successes and more when it comes to books aimed at those just beginning to read for themselves, or those consolidating their reading skills.
If you’ve a review, commentary, or an experience you want to share on this topic, please leave a comment on this post including a link to your piece and I’ll add you to the carnival. The carnival will remain open until the evening of Monday 16th May so if you haven’t got a blog post all ready to submit you’ve a few days to write one to be included. Infact we’re happy to accept posts up to a year old – so really there’s every reason to join in 
Over at Fantastic Reads Claire and her son Liam have reviewed Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr. Liam and him Mum took turns in reading parts of this book, which “is split into lots of short stories for easy reading and while each one carries a similar theme of whether Wolf will ever catch Polly, the content is imaginative and varied as he tries every trick in the book.” I’m glad to say I have reserved it at the library on the basis of Claire and Liam’s review!
Anita writes beautifully about passing on the book bug, and the importance of adults being excited about reading if their kids are ever to feel the same way.
Over at Chez Spud, in New readers…beyond Biff & Chip Spudballoo writes about the (UK) reading schemes which have worked brilliantly for her and her sons, focussing on those that consist of “decodable books”, rather than “look and say” books. I found some useful suggestions there – so do go and check her recommendations out.
Julie at Just Playin’ Around has written about Stages of Reading Development and very helpfully has included several (US) book series recommendations for each stage.
Catherine speaks the truth (at least in my experience) when she writes Books for emergent readers can be boring over at Adventures with Kids. In her post she shares a tip about making reading more interesting for young learners, a simply thing we could all try if our kids are bored with their books and are loosing focus on the text…
Melissa at Imagination Soup reviews Flip a Word Books from Blue Apple Books – she describes them as “the most enticing early readers – colorful, bold, and absolutely perfect for learning to read and learning word fa
Welcome one and all to this month’s celebration of early literacy, easy readers and short chapter books! The I Can Read carnival is all about sharing finds, approaches, successes and more when it comes to books aimed at those just beginning to read for themselves, or those consolidating their reading skills.
If you’ve a review, commentary, or an experience you want to share on this topic, please leave a comment on this post including a link to your piece and I’ll add you to the carnival. The carnival will remain open until the evening of Sunday 12th December so if you haven’t got a blog post all ready to submit you’ve a few days to write one to be included. Infact we’re happy to accept posts up to a year old – so really there’s every reason to join in
Photo: EvelynGiggles
As to my contribution to the carnival I thought it was high time I wrote about the first books M read herself, how we chose them and what we learned in the process about books for those just beginning to read for themselves.
M started learning to read (in a formal manner) almost exactly a year ago. Of course I wanted to support her in anyway I could, and that included finding some books for her to read to me at home, some earliest of early readers. I wanted books that:
were written in British English (lots of reviews out there in the blogosphere don’t mention which sort of English books are written in and I didn’t want to have to explain that “color” is an ok spelling in the US but not one that M’s teachers would accept, or to try to capture her attention with cultural references which had no meaning to her – yellow buses and baseball for instance). Normally I’m all for cultural cross-fertilization, infact I seek it out, but this is one instance where I felt it wasn’t appropriate.
had fantastic illustrations – I knew the text would invariably be simple, and therefore less likely to tell a really engaging tale, so I wanted to make sure the illustrations at least would make M want to re-read each book.
weren’t dull, and preferably made us both laugh. Goes without saying, really, but I wanted books that were enjoyable rather than just worthy.
formed part of a graded collection, not just a one off but something with variety and progression from easy to more challenging reading.
and didn’t cost the earth – it’s one thing spending £5-£10 on a utterly gorgeous book that both the girls and I will want to linger over and read again and again, but it’s another thing to spend that sort of money on a book that may only be read 3 or 4 times at most.
3 Comments on I Can Read: A Carnival Celebrating New Readers, last added: 12/7/2010
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Oooh, I like Feast! Much better than carnival, which was confusing. I've got a review of one of the new Toon comic easy readers, Zik and Wikki in the Cow http://jeanlittlelibrary.blogspot.com/2012/02/nonfiction-monday-zig-and-wikki-in-cow.html
I like Feast too. Terry made a good choice there. Thanks for your link! I just saw that book when it arrived at my library last week, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I love the cover, though!
Great idea! My latest posts on these kinds of books: No. 1 Car Spotter (http://www.literaritea.blogspot.com/2012/02/no-1-car-spotter.html) and Mr. and Mrs. Green (http://www.literaritea.blogspot.com/2012/01/mr-and-mrs-green.html). I've also done a (VERY) basic website for a class on the Geisel winners/honorees: web.utk.edu/~bfarquha.htm
My kiddo is a beginning reader so these books have been on my mind! Here are the three latest reviews for early readers on Vegbooks. So cool to see another review of Mr. and Mrs. Green from Betsy in the comment above - I'll have to try to work in a link to her review.
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Green: http://vegbooks.org/index.php/2012/02/20/meet-mr-and-mrs-green/
Good Dog, Aggie:
http://vegbooks.org/index.php/2012/02/18/good-dog-aggie/
Snow:
http://vegbooks.org/index.php/2011/12/25/snow/
We've also reviewed No Plain Hair, Pigs Make Me Sneeze, Chicken Said Cluck, Bob and Shirley: A Tale of Two Lobsters, and Fairly Fairy Tales over the past year.
Count me in! I have two posts to share.
One is a review of the hilarious Bad Kitty for President:
http://thecathinthehat.blogspot.com/2012/02/bad-kitty-for-president.html
The second is a review of Ivy and Bean: No News Is Good News:
http://thecathinthehat.blogspot.com/2012/02/ivy-bean-no-news-is-good-news.html