A dragon book so good it deserves a post of its own.

Please note this review contains spoilers. The whole point or shall I say "hole " point of buying this book is the ending. My meaning will be come clear at the end of this review.

My youngest son loves dragons, so when amazon recommended this for me I couldn't resist. It begins with a very cute little green dragon, playing sword fight, having a snack, brushing his teeth and taking a bath. He then looks up at his mother with a book in his hands and an enchanting look that just must be saying "Please read me this". His mother happily cuddles up to read the story of a fierce red dragon, who never goes to bed, terrorises trolls and eats princesses for dinner.

When the story is finished, with the sweetest of expressions the little dragon softly asks again to read again. Looking a bit tired, his mother obliges, but she changes the story a bit, making it a bit more gentle, and perhaps more conducive of sleep. The little dragon is still very happy, dancing about, but when his mother goes to leave he grabs her tail shouting "Again!". This goes on for several more pages, with the mother dragon looking more and more exhausted and the little dragon wider and wider awake. The mother tries to make the stories more suitable for calming down and going to sleep, but little dragon doesn't like this. He gets angrier and angrier until he turns a bright angry red himself, finally releasing a fireball which puts a hole right through his book, and your book as well. It's a good thing it is nearly the end of the story as the last page and the back cover now a big blackened hole in the middle.

This book is two stories in a way. We do get to hear the complete story of the angry red dragon each time as the mother reads it to the little dragon, while at the same time, there is another story of the little dragon and his mother. The second story is told primarily in pictures and the illustrations tell it perfectly. Other than the first line "It was nearly bedtime." the only word is "again". even a child who can not really read can quickly learn these lines and takes turns voicing little dragon's lines while the parent reads the story like the mother dragon would. As the story progresses Mother looks more and more worn out ( I'm sure we all know the feeling) while little dragon's face changes from angelic to petulant to nearly demonic with rage.

My son still giggles with delight every time we read this. He especially loves when the poor Mother dragon falls asleep and the little dragon jumps up and down on her screaming "again" which he often acts out by jumping on my bed. He also loves the hole in the back of the book and enjoys peeking through it or poking his fingers through. he likes pointing out how the little dragon is getting very angry as his facial expressions change, and little spots of red appear.

As a parent I can certainly relate to poor Mrs Dragon as well. At least my boys are nice enough to tiptoe off to bed, or the youngest may just go to sleep beside me when I have fallen asleep halfway through a story. the look of exasperation on the mother dragon is sure to bring a smile to most parents.

I have hundreds if not thousands of books. I have no intention of counting, but as a single shelf can easily hold 100 picture books, and I have book case after book case filled with books I don't think my estimate is too high. In fact a rumour was flying about that the school board counted the books in your house on home visits. My husband simply said "They may bring plenty of helpers then because they are not staying overnight". I doubt you could count them in one day. Needless to say they have never bothered. With so many books, it takes a lot for book to really stand out as exceptional, but this is one of the very best picture books I own. If you have a child between 9 - months and 7 years - all I can say is "buy it". Even my eight year old was laughing with this one, as was I. This is another book that will never find it's way into the charity shop. When my sons outgrow it, I am keeping it for myself until such time as they have children of their own.

This sells for £7.58 for hardback copy new and delivered from Amazon, or £5.28 from Amazon Marketplace. You can get a paperback for less, but in this case I would recommend paying the extra for a hardback copy as the hole effect is much better. I also feel that this is one of those books that may be read until it is falling apart in a paperback format. I did get my copy for much less as I bought used as new. I love this book so much though that if it were out print and something happened to my copy I could easily see paying £20 or more. As far as I am concerned it is priceless.

* This review has also appeared on dooyoo

More Dragon Books

Jin Jin and the Rain Wizard:
After reading the first Jin Jin, we just had to have the second. This one is as lovely as the first. In this story Jin Jin loses the power to breathe water after throwing rice away. He learns that food should not be wasted, as many people suffer without enough to eat, but he also learns that you can correct a mistake with enough effort. This is another beautiful story that combines Chinese Folklore with a mother's loving stories to her own child, illustrated just a beautifully by her brother. It gives some information on Chinese characters as well, and teaches something of Chinese history and culture, so this is very much a book that educates as it entertains.

 The Pet Dragon;
This book does set out to teach children Chinese characters, but as educational as it is, it is even more entertaining. It tells a lovely story of the friendship between a girl a very tiny red dragon - who doesn't stay tiny for long. Like most Eastern stories, there is some moral to this as well. The girl is kind and helpful to an elderly woman and this kindness is returned.

Tralfagar True: Another Stepehn Cosgrove story with a beautiful and gentle blue and purple dragon who teaches the furry kith and kin the meaning of friendship and the importance of sharing.

Dragonology:
 The cover of this book is the first that thing that will draw any reader in, and it is beautiful. The paper is thick and smooth and printed to look like a red leather covering, with a circle in the middle which displays a lovely illustration of a dragon in flight. This circle is surrounded by three glass gemstones and text both in English and the language of the dragons. Encircling this illustration is a stunning red dragon embossed into the cover. This dragon is raised, so that children can run their fingers over it, feeling the dragon, or lay a paper across it and make a rubbing. Best of all though, it is made of a foil type material, which if tilted toward the light right will reflect a flame like glow. Finally we have a Celtic design in another circle like a great seal. The overall impression is magical and well suited to this book.

Inside the book we find several pages telling us all about dragons. The first set mentions other animals once thought to be myths that are now known to be real. There is a scientific explanation of how dragons fly and breathe fire, involving methane gas, a map of the world with locations of dragons, detailed descriptions of various types of dragons, the life cycle of dragons, their natural history and behaviour. After this we receive all sorts of advice for the study of dragons and finally a history of dragonologists and dragon slayers. the entire book is presented in a journal like format, meant to be the records of a dragonologist, Ernest Drake.
 Full review @ dooyoo
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/dragonology-the-complete-book-of-dragons-dugald-steer/1705085/

Dragonology Pocket Adventures:
Four short choose your own adventures perfect for younger readers. We finished each of these in one night. They are illustrated and teach just a little bit of geography as well.

Dragonology Chronicles
A series of longer chapter books with two children studying as apprentices for dragonologist Dr Drake. Black and white illustrations, easy to read, and lovely stories.

Dragon Stew:
 Dragon stew is about a very polite red dragon, and four very rude Vikings with nothing to do. The Vikings decide that capturing a dragon might be fun, they could tie him up and cart him home and cook up dragon stew.  They know they are in the right place when they find a gigantic pile of dragon poo. The Vikings find the dragon, who politely greets them and asks them if they would like something to eat, but the only thing the nasty Vikings want is a pot of dragon stew.

This is a very short story with a lovely rhyming text and a real pleasure to read aloud. Rhyming text or Nursery rhymes are considered to be a key part in emergent literacy, and believe it or not, this process starts as young as 6 months of age. Reading to your child from a very early age is the very best thing you can do to help them become readers later, but rhyming books are especially important for children who are not yet reading. Rhyming text is also far more difficult to write well, and many books rhyme, but fall short in the story, and just because it rhymes does not mean it will necessarily have a good cadence as well. This has an excellent story for little ones, as well as a wonderful cadence and rhyme.

The illustrations are top notch as well. They are somewhat carton like, but bright and colourful enough to entice even a very young child, and very, very funny. My son usually prefers longer stories now, but I am well pleased that he really enjoys this as well, as at age 4, he is not reading yet. I would highly recommend this, from ages 6 months or even younger ( I read to my children before they were even born). This is a book for sharing with a child though, by the time a child is old enough to read this on their own, I feel they will most likely have outgrown the story. There is nothing in this book that I feel would upset or frighten even the youngest child.

Full review @ dooyoo
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/dragon-stew-steve-smallman/1705747/

Where Did All the Dragons Go:
 ' Where Did all The Dragons Go ' is, as the title suggest about what happened to the dragons long ago. Every part of the world has ancient tales of dragon like beasts, but of course none are alive today, so if you choose to believe they once were real - where have they gone? This book is for every child who asked this question. This book tells of a time long ago, when dragons shared the earth with man. The children loved the dragons and often joined in their games, but the adults could not understand the powerful creatures and feared them. The time came when the dragons knew they must leave to find their own place. they joined into a great flock and flew away, to a place unknown, but perhaps some trace remains. When the clouds grow black as smoke, and the fire of lightning can be seen, you just my hear the dragons roar again. Beautifully illustrated, rhyming text.
Full review @ dooyoo

http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/where-did-all-the-dragons-go-fay-robinson/1706601/

The Dragon Snatcher:
George's dragon comes home but he needs help. An evil wizard is stealing all the dragons eggs to cast a spell to banish dragons from their home forever. Can George find the last egg in time?

Too Hot to Hug:
Lovely story about a baby dragon whose warmth is lovely at first - but he soon becomes too hot to hug. Beautiful pictures and a happy ending.
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/too-hot-to-hug-steve-smallman/1710800/

Dragon Books for children

These are all books with good dragons - so if you are looking for dragon slaying adventures. I'm sorry, but this is the wrong place. These books are for younger children who love dragons.

The Water Dragon by Jian Li:
This is a truly beautiful book with some of the most beautiful illustrations I have ever seen, and a lovely story to match. It is a story of kindness and morality, but does not read as such. To a child this just a wonderful story, but the  it still sets a wonderful example as well. It is a story of a boy who finds a magical dragon stone, but then his village is beset by drought. He sets off on a quest to find the magical water dragon, helping many animals along the way. The story is told both in English and Chinese. One a scale of one to five, this book breaks the scales and easily earns a six.
*****+

Jin Jin the Dragon by Grace Chang:
This is another beautiful story based loosely on Chinese folklore. Jin Jin is a beautiful golden creature who hatches from an egg alone. He meets several helpful animals as he travels on is quest to find the wise old turtle and crane so he can find out what he is. He has the scales of a fish, the claws of an eagle, the antlers of the deer, the body of the serpent etc... But his quest to find out who he is interrupted as he comes across people in desperate need of help? The beauty of this story is that in helping others, he discovers his true nature.

In addition to a beautiful story, the illustration in this book are lovely as well - what child would not love Jin Jin? This book also explains how Chinese characters are formed, as Jin Jin reads the clues to continue his quest, and your child will learn a few of these as well. But this is not a book children will see as educational, although it is, for children this book is simply magic - and I have to confess - I found it magical myself.

Finally the author tells us more about dragons in Chinese culture in a brief note at the end of the book, as well as giving us information on Chinese characters in general, and the ones used in this book in specific.  This is another book I find difficult to limit to 5 stars and am adding a plus to show that even among 5 star rated books, this is a cut above.
*****+

The Popcorn Dragon by Jane Thayer
Dexter looks more like a traditional western dragon, but he appears to live on the African savannah, as his friends are an elephant , a giraffe and a zebra. The elephant looks a bit closer to an Indian elephant though, but they are all beautifully drawn. This story is more about friendship than anything else, but it touches on many common childhood themes, loneliness, showing off, and getting along with others.

Dexter is a very young dragon - and has just discovered a new skill - blowing smoke. But he ends up showing off a bit too much and not thinking of others, which leaves him isolated from the other animals. He soon discovers another talent - his hot breath can make corn into popcorn - but this time he learns to think of others as well.
*****

The Muffin Muncher by Stephen Cosgrove
Out of print now and more difficult to find, but this is a lovely story with beautiful illustrations about a dragon who loves to eat muffins and learns that helping others can often make it easier for them to help you as well.
*****

Dragolin by Stephen by Stephen Cosgrove
A beautiful little green dragon who can not breathe fire, at least not at first, and learns to believe in himself.
*****

Serendipity
A  very sweet pink sea serpent with a message about pollution.
**** 1/2

The Egg by M.P. Robertson
When George finds an enormous egg in his mother's chicken coop , he takes it on himself to nurture and care for it. It turns out to be a dragon's egg and George makes a wonderful dragon mother, but eventually the dragon longs to be among it's own kind. A lovely story about love and letting go.
*****

The Snow Dragon by Vivian French
A long time ago, the world was divided into two halves, the northern hemisphere was ice cold and populated by peaceful snow dragons. The southern hemisphere was fiery hot, and home to the fierce fire dragons. Only a small strip in between that was neither too hot nor too cold was home to the two legs (humans). Everyone stayed to their own parts of the world, and so their was peace, until Book tells the ruler of the fire dragons that a two leg will cause their demise. So the fire dragons searched out and destroyed the two legs, leaving only a few survivors hidden in caves. In their quest to destroy the two legs they went further and further north, changing the world to a hot dry desert and forcing the snow dragons to retreat deeper into the snow covered mountains until only one remained.

Now Book enters the picture again, found by an orphan twolegs, Little Tuft. Book shows Little Tuft a picture of the last snow dragon and the quest begins. Sometimes book helps Tuft, and shows him the which path to take, other times he misleads the boy deliberately. Tuft perseveres through all danger until he finds the snow dragon and persuades her to help.
Spoiler Alert - as this book has an ending which may upset some children - I will give away the ending.. The snow dragon gives her life to destroy the fire dragons and bring peace to the world. The twolegs prosper. Then at the end Little Tuft thinks he sees the shape of the snow dragon in the clouds, and you can see her in the illustration. This gives parents the easy out of saying the snow dragon isn't really dead, she has just changed int a cloud dragon and lives in the sky.
 This is a beautiful story and well illustrated, but my sons never took to it as much as the other dragon stories as they really did not like the ending.
****

Puff, the Magic Dragon (Book & CD)
A beautifully illustrated book of the popular children song, with accompanying musical CD and a happier ending through the final illustrations.

Unusual Alphabet books - including tactile alphabets, dinosaur ABC's and more

These books are all suitable for young children with the possible exception of two under Monster's ABCs. If you want a very scary one for mature audiences you will find one on my other blog : http://goodbooksforbadchildren.blogspot.co.uk/ .

TACTILE ALPHABET BOOKS:
I have no idea why so few of these have ever been printed. Most children learn so much better when through many senses. These combine sight, touch and hearing.

Sparkle Books Learn Your ABC
This book consists of 9 pages printed on a heavy 9" x 6" card. Each page has 3 letters, except the last which has two. There is a large capitol for each letter cut out of the card to reveal a shining sparkling letter. There is also a set of smaller letters in capitol and lower case, a word beginning with that letter and a simple drawing to match. There is no text at all other than the single words and the letter pairs. This does have it's own usefulness though as children can easily learn the words for each of these common objects by looking at this book often. All in all this is a very basic ABC book, and the main point of interest would be the sparkling letters, which I have found even very young children seem to enjoy.

There is however one other aspect about this book that makes it worth adding to your child's bookshelf. The cut out letters are ideal for tracing with little fingers, something my own children enjoy doing with this book. This allows the child to learn the letters with three senses, visual, auditory and tactile, as opposed to most ABC books which only use two. While this will be of special benefit to tactile/ kinesthetic learners, I do believe this is helpful for all small children. 
* Also reviewed on dooyoo

Usborne Touchy Feely abc
This is a very traditional alphabet book - a is for apple, be is for b and c is for car.  They are very bright and colourful, and reasonably well drawn, but perhaps best suited to younger children - ages 1 -3. Not every picture has a texture, but most pages do have at least one textured pictured. I rather think it is cheating to use a cut out section with smooth card as a texture through when the entire book is made of smooth card. In addition to the card texture, they have a number of cloth textures. These are not the greatest, but they are OK, and enough to get him to read the book now and then. They most certainly do not compare with the textures in Fiona Watt's That's Not My.... series.

This book  uses lower cases letters only, and would be very useful for those following a Montessori programme, or  otherwise trying to use only lower case letters. The letters themselves were a bit of a dissapointment though. They are all textured, but only with a stamp creating ridges into the paper. There are none that have a cut out insert, and the texture is slightly less noticeable than the stickers I have used for a similar purpose on other books.  For tactile purposes as this is not quite as good as Learn Your ABC (Sparkle Books) - which wasn't even intended to be a tactile book.

In short this book is neither very good nor very bad, it is simply mediocre. I think it would be a very good baby or toddler book, but it still has some use for any child who is learning their alphabet. I do have a lot of complaints with this book, but at the same time,  there are so very few tactile ABC books printed, it is still worth considering.
My dooyoo review:
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/touchy-feely-abc-fiona-watt/1692343/

Montessori Letter Work by Bobby and June George
Lower case letters only - as one would expect from a  Montessori book. these letters are not in alphabetical order - which I feel is a good thing - it means children are learning the letters by sight, not order. Simple traditional ABC book type illustrations. The main reason to buy this book is the large textured letters with arrows showing the correct  way to form the letters. I would note though these are not sandpaper letters. The texture is simply a painted on material and not the most noticeable. Also Montessori purists will be horrified at the suggestion to pronounce each letter with an extended vowel sound such as "duh" for d. We simply skip this part and say the sounds the proper way.

Animal ABC Books

 A is for Animals by David Pelham
26 flaps with a large clear upper and lower case letter. These open up to reveal stunning pop up animal illustrations. Highly recommended.

Animal ABCs (San Diego Zoo Series)
A very fun small fold out book with lovely colour photos. Upper case letters only.

Animalia by Graeme Base
Beautiful hidden pictures animal alphabet. Upper case only.

Dinosaur ABC Books

An Alphabet of Dinosaurs - Peter Dodson
Beautifully illustrated with vivid, colourful paintings showing a great deal of artistic talent. In addition to a full page painting for each letter there is also a very detailed black and white drawing of the animals skeleton. Next to the skeleton is a simple figure of a man to give an idea of the size of this animal.

Each letter also has a long paragraph describing the animal. This is written on a fairly high reading and interest level. For instance, one sentence reads "Erlikosaurus belonged to a group of dinosaurs called the segnosaurs". This is a well written scientific book which is certain to please young paleontology fans, but may not be of as much interest to the average nursery age child - of course you can always subsitute with a simpler more age appropriate description.

 This does not display the letters on their own. The only place a child will really see the letter is at the start of each dinosaurs name. This is written in an artistic and highly stylized manner, which looks lovely, but really is not the best for children just learning to read. I drew large letters into the book myself. Then having seen how helpful stickers were in an alphabet book, I also places foil alphabet stickers for each letter on the page with the text
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/an-alphabet-of-dinosaurs/1692121/

The Dinosaur Alphabet Book - Jerry Pallotta
Lovely book with clear upper and lower case letters, nice paintings and plenty of facts for each dinosaur.
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/the-dinosaur-alphabet-book-jerry-pallotta-ralph-masiello/1692871/

Dinosaurs Write With Me Alphabet
This is really lovely book, printed on an exceptionally thick card. It features one dinosaur for each letter, with a well drawn illustration and a few brief facts presented in a rhyming text. At the bottom of each page are two lines with the upper case letter shown in black, grey, dotted lines, and finally a blank section so children can read the letters, trace over them with the special pen and then practice their own. The books zips up into into a built in case with room for a pen and small cloth so you can take this out and about as well. Also included with the book is a pen, stickers and a cd rom. Upper and lower case letters are featured, but writing practice is upper case letters only.
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/dinosaurs-and-more-write-with-me-alphabet/1683301/

Alphasaurs and Other Prehistoresic Types by  Sharon Werner and Sarah Nelson
Alphasaurs has a very unique style of illustration. Each dinosaur or prehistoric reptile is made up only of the first letter of that creatures name. So Allosaurus is drawn only using only the letter A in upper and lower cases and of different sizes. This seems like an impossible task, but the artists has really created beautiful black and white pictures using only letters. In addition to the dinosaur being made of letters, there are facts on each animal as well. These facts are told in a highly alliterative verse, using the featured letter over and over. The letter is also drawn into the smaller illustrations with the facts, so the book tells us Allosaurus were both angry and aggressive, with capital A's drawn into angry faces. Fruitadens lived in a forest and the forest is drawn with the letter f for the the trunks of each tree, and the letter P forms the branches of pine for the Parasaurolophus.
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/alphasaurs-and-other-prehistoric-types/1708263/

MONSTER ABC BOOKS

The Absolutely Awful Alphabet Book  - Mordecai Gerstein
Titally nonsensical beasts in the shape of upper case letters witha short description amde up of words beginning with that letter.


Z is for Zombie Merrily Kutner:

My boys love this book but it may frighten some children. Each page has a picture of a monster or some other creepy item, followed by a short rhyme such as " Bogeyman: Darkness masks the Bogeyman, till you're sleeping that's his plan". The illustrations are usually in darkened shades, some showing the subject very clearly, such as a sink full of bloody eyeballs, the cyclops eating a man, or a queen with her head in her hands, while others only give you a hint of things to come - a clawed hand reaching in the door for the bogeyman, or a set of eyes staring in a bedroom window for the end of this book accompanied by this warning "Beware the night and what it brings, for out their lurk such scary things".

It has the name of each spooky item, but this is in a highly stylised block text, which I would find difficult to read if I did not already know the spellings for each word. Lower case "U" is the worst. It is presented as a black square shape with a white diamond in the middle, but all of the letters in the name of each subject are splattered looking, as if made by dipping a shape in ink, and slopping tons of extra ink over the letter. It actually doesn't look bad. There is a certain artistic quality to it, but it hardly suits a child who is just learning to read.

To make up for this shortcoming I placed large foil alphabet letters to the side of each poem. This worked out perfectly as the letters are very visible, but can also be traced with a finger allowing a child to learn the alphabet through touch as well. Of course you could simply write the letters in with marker, but having used the stickers, I would highly recommend this - and if possible - a textured sticker would work even better.

Full review on Dooyoo
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/z-is-for-zombie-merrily-kutner/1690809/

Y is for Yowl - parental discretion also advised. Some parents have objected to a knife thrower illustration. Of course knife is a terrible word to illustrate the k sound with regardless of  your opinion on scary books. Illustrated with phots, but some are rather poor. My children did not find this frightening at all. It does have upper and lower case letters.
Full review @ dooyoo http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/y-is-for-yowl-laura-purdie-salas/1693507/
Full review on Dooyoo
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/z-is-for-zombie-merrily-kutner/1690809/

CLASSIC ABC BOOKS

Curious George Learns the Alphabet by H.A. Rey
One of the very best alphabet books ever. Each letter is cleverly made into a picture - so the upper case A becomes an alligators mouth, the lower case a becomes an apple. This also includes a story of how George learned to write - and gets into a bit of mischief as well.

Dr Seuss ABC
This book isn't just a classic, when comes to ABC books, it is THE classic. It has 63 pages and uses capitol and lower case letters. The illustrations are what you would expect from Dr Seuss, cartoon type characters, often of totally nonsensical creatures such as the zizzer zazzer zuzz. They are warm and brightly coloured and I could still remember every page and picture from my own childhood before buying this for my children.

The text is not always rhyming, as one usually finds with Dr Seuss, but still had that rhythm to it which makes it easy to read and pleasant to listen too. It clearly distinguishes between capitol and lower case, with phrases like "BIG A little a What begins with A? " Although some prefer to teach children only one set of letters at first, I find it just as easy to teach both, especially when the differences are clearly drawn as in this book. Still for a strict follower of Montessori, the capitol letters would make it inappropriate, as would the letter names. I also believe this book clearly helps a child learn the phonic sound for each letter in a fun and easy way.
* also reviewed on dooyoo.

The Little Engine That Could ABC Time by Watty Piper

Beautiful gentle illustrations best suited to a younger child. Also has hidden pictures to find.

Peter Rabbit's Hide and Seek ABC 
Sliding picture ABC using original Beatrix Potter illustrations. This is a lovely book but please be aware the pictures are very difficult to change and could easily be damaged by young children. This must be used only with close parental supervision.

ABC Letterland
Beautiful illustrations with Letterland characters and text focused on each letter. Very useful for phnoetic reading programmes.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Rhyming Alphabet Book

And a few other suggestions all by Jerry Pallotta
The Underwater Alphabet Book
Yucky Reptile Alphabet Book
The Bird Alphabet Book
The Extinct Alphabet Book
The Butterfly Alphabet Book
The Construction Alphabet Book
The Airplane Alphabet Book
The Yummy Alphabet Book

Putting it all together

the alphabet tree by Leo Liomi
A sweet gentle story of a friendly  bee who teaches the letters on the alphabet tree to join together in words and sentences to  stay safe in the storm.

Bug Books for children

Like many home educators we often take a unit study approach to education, and since we have been collecting the new CODE books we have tied many unit studies into the topics covered by these books. The first cluster in CODE is Bugtastic - which makes this a great time to collect bug books - some of our favourites are:

CODE books 1 -4 Bugtastic

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - True this is at at even younger reading age, but it's a good confidence booster and lots of fun. You can also make lovely caterpillar print paintings by dipping a half of a potato in different coloured paints to make the body, drawing on some legs and adding some google eyes. You can also make a butterfly by folding an A4 paper in half, painting half the picture and then folding it over. If you want really fancy butterflies - cut out a butterfly shape from card. cut large sections out of the wings and paste coloured tissue paper over these for a stained glass effect.

Life Cycle of an Ant

The book begins by explaining exactly what an ant is. It explains that ants are invertebrates, insects and Hymenoptera ( a group of flying insects that includes ants, wasps and bees. I quite like this because it encourages children to start thinking about the scientific classification of organisms. It also teaches children the different castes of ants, their body parts and what the function of each part is. After this is a short section on colonies and nests, including a very interesting but brief paragraph on army ants making a living tent by linking bodies together to protect the queen and eggs when they rest during the day.

Only after learning the very basic facts about ants does the child move on to the main section, the life cycle. This explains the difference between life cycle and life span, has an illustration showing the process starting with an egg, which hatches into a larva, then a pupa and finally and adult. There are some excellent high magnification photos, as well as more detail information on each stage of the life cycle. You can actually see the eyes of a larva ready to hatch within the clear egg, and view worker ants bundling several eggs together to move them. There are several photos of larva and pupa as well including one very high magnification of a pure white pupa folded up in a cocoon which looks very much like something from a sci-fi flick.

Next we learn about the mating behaviour of ants, but there is nothing too graphic here.  A queen ant only mates once. She will remain fertile for life. After mating a new colony is formed. Finally, the book winds up with some details on the social lives of ants, diet and feeding and ants in danger or under threat. The final page is short section on making an ant farm and keeping ants.

We all really enjoyed this book. The boys loved the photographs which are of an exceptionally high quality show all sorts of tiny details. the magnification shows even tiny hairs on some of the ants, and all the photos are sharp and clear. They especially loved the pictures of the eggs, larvae and pupae. they also enjoyed seeing the different castes of ant : worker, soldier, queen and drones. There is one photo under feeding where one regurgitates into another's mouth which had the perfect level of gross for young boys.

I loved this book because, although written at a fairly easy reading level - I think most children could read this easily by age 7 - this does present a fair amount of scientific detail. It encourages children to think in terms of classification of species as well as to understand how the ants life cycle works, how creatures change as they grow, and of course something of the way these insects live in a huge group, each member with it's part to play.
Full review @dooyoo:
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/the-life-cycle-of-an-ant/1706124/

Bugs by Number: Unique nook with all illustrations made only of numbers. Not exactly a counting book, but plenty to count if you wish as well as bug facts:
http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/junior-book/bugs-by-the-numbers-sharon-werner/1711113/

An absolute must for insect identification in Britain:
Collins Complete British Insects - Michael Chinery

http://members.dooyoo.co.uk/non-fiction/collins-complete-british-insects-michael-chinery/1711468/


 Watch Me Grow: Butterfly: A very simple easy to read book, but lovely photos illustrating each step of the change.

Honey Bee's Hive - Mini Beasts

Army Ants - Mini Beasts

DK Eyewonder: Bugs

DK Insects

A Ladybug Larva Grows Up - Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers: Life Cycles

Incredible Insects

What is Pollination?  Big Science Ideas: An excellent resource showing how insects pollinate plants.

Uncover a Tarantula: Take a Three-Dimensional Look Inside a Tarantula!: A really fun book with a 3d model showing the insides of a tarantula as well as plenty of information about these creatures.

Ant's Bug Adventure - Bookband Blue level 4
Ants at Home - Project X - Bookband Lime level 11
Ant Meets the Queen - Project X Bookband Lime level 11
Ant Attack - Project X - Bookband Brown level 12
Ant Storm Project X - Bookband Brown level 12
The Swarm - Project X- Bookband Y5 Blue level  14
Wow Explained - Project X - Bookband Y5 Blue level 14

The project X books above include several reading levels.Ants at home is non fiction, and WOW explained is a unique cross between fiction and non fiction. The rest are part of a wonderful serial adventure involving children with special watches that allow them to shrink to microsized and explore the world on a whole new level. Ant's Bug adventure features and angry stag beetle, the next 4 titles are about ants and the final 2 feature bees.

 

Project X Code: Bugtastic and home education

Bugtastic is the first  cluster in Project X's new series CODE. These books are designed to be used with a phonetic approach to reading - and the emphasis is on phonetically decodable words. Each book in this series is divided into two sections. The first half is meant to be 100% phonetically decodable, to allow emergent readers to read with confidence. The second part of the book is 80% decodable, which allows the story to be more exciting. In the beginning a parent and child can share the reading of this book with the child reading the first half and the adult the second. As the child becomes more familiar with the text, they can then attempt the more complex section of the book.

Of course the big issue with "phonetically decodable" is that what is phonetically decodable for one child is not phonetically decodable for the next. Wikipedia defines decodable text as: "a type of text often used in beginning reading instruction. With this type of text, new readers can decipher words using the phonics skills they have been taught. For instance, children could decode a phrase such as "Pat the fat rat" if they had been taught the letter-sound associations for each letter--that 'p' stands for the sound /p/, 'a' for the sound /a/, etc." So - if they have not been taught these sounds - this text will not be decodable. I think the definition on righttrackreading.com is the easiest to understand: "In reading instruction, the term 'decodable' refers to words containing only the phonetic code the child or student has already learned." Since many phonics programmes begin only with soft letter most books in this series will not be decodable to children until they have moved on to long vowel sounds as well. This particular book, as well as the book number tow are an exception to this, using only soft vowel sounds with the exception of one single word "Bite" which is essential to this story, and the name of one character, Tiger. However, the series as whole does begin with reading level 3, and assume the child has had some previous instruction in phonics, including a knowledge of long vowel sounds for book 3.

Although designed for phonetic instruction, there is really no reason why you could not teach a child to read this book through whole language as well. The only difficulty is that there will be more unfamiliar words for a new reader because this series focuses on phonetically decodable rather than high frequency words. That said, with the exception of"Bite", I would expect every word in this particular book to be on high frequency word lists as well. The first half of this book uses a total of only 27 different words + the names of the five characters. All of the words are single syllable and very easy to read. I think "jump" and "visit" would be the most challenging.

With so few words, and such simple ones at that, I would expect the story to be a bit dull, as most phonetic readers are. The main drawback to phonics instruction is that by limiting the vocabulary used, stories become dull and children are often not motivated to read. This series was specifically designed to overcome that for children with reading difficulties and / or sen. The second part of the story does provide a richer vocabulary, but this entire series is also very highly visual. It is illustrated with beautiful computer generated imagery of the same quality level one would expect from a top of the line film animation studio like Dreamworks. Taken by itself, the text would be very dull, but the pictures suggest a far more exciting adventure story.

 The Bugtastic cluster, as one might guess has a lot of bugs. The children in this story have shrunk to micro-size so a preying mantis or even a grasshopper can look like a monster, and a slugs trail can become a very slippery hazard. Future sets will include all sorts of boy friendly topics such as space, vehicles, jungles, sharks, dragons, dinosaurs, and more.

In addition to the story, there are also a few pages introducing certain phonetic sounds which will be emphasized in this text, a few words broken down into phonetic components, a few tricky words and some questions or exercises relating to the story. This really is intended as a school book and the educational emphasis is obvious.

I've always been impressed with Oxford's range for beginning readers in general and Project X in particular. As soon as I saw this series, I knew it would be good. Looking through the first books I was very impressed from an educational standpoint, and I knew my sons would enjoy these. I did expect these to be read for pleasure as well as being used for school assignments ( I home educate). After all, my youngest at 4 is not reading yet, and my oldest at age 7 reads at a young adult level). They have been used for educational purposes as a refresher course in phonics for spelling improvement, and also just as base to build focus additional studies around. For instance with this unit we also read several non fiction titles on insects, and I think as school starts back next week we will do some bug art projects as well.

While I knew my sons would enjoy these books, even I was was surprised by just how much they enjoyed them. They were given money for Christmas by a generous Uncle, and rather than buy new video games as I expected, they both chose more books in this series. They have also been doing extra chores and saving up all of their pocket money to buy books. It is rare for my children to buy their own books - as they know Mom will eventually buy the books for them, but these books are expensive (£3.60 - £5.00 each, with the price going up when the page count increases from 24 to 32 pages) There are a total of 56 books plus the starter book which was over £7 so I can't very well buy the whole set all at once, and as I am buying as many as I can ( with help from dooyoo) they are also spending all of their money to add the set. Personally, I feel when a child is willing to choose school books over a new video game that is very high praise indeed.

My youngest says he likes these books because they have "the shrinky kids", whom he knows and loves from the previous Project X series. He says he really likes the baby dragon too. He says the books are funny, but most of all , I believe he enjoys imagining his own micro adventures. We often pause between books for him to describe what it would be like to do all the things in the book. To be miniature sized and see giant bugs, to go into space, or find a dragon.

My oldest says he loves the illustrations, and that the books are like a video game because you beat the boss of each world (the Bite) before moving on to the next level. He thinks the Wonders of the World will be the most exciting, but we haven't got to those yet, and can't wait to see what the big boss is for the whole set - very much like a video game. I think he must be using his imagination with these too though as he has often found a quite corner with a stack of these books and sat quietly staring at illustrations for far longer than it would take him to read the text.

I think these books are so wonderful. My children love them and they really are so much fun. They encourage the children to want to learn more about other subjects like we did with the bug unit. My youngest is learning some phonetic sounds from the phonics section at the beginning of the book and these will be wonderful when he starts reading n his own. My oldest is really far too old for these, as at age 7 he can read ata young adult level ( Thanks to the original Project X and Charlie Higgins) but he is still enjoying these, often reads to his brother, and I think they are helping his spelling as well.

This cluster is made up of ( in order):

1. The Web: This begins with a caterpillar style roller coaster and features a fright from a grasshopper - which looks a lot more frightening to micro- sized Cat. Featured phonemes: j,v,w,zz.

2. Cat's Quest: Poor Tiger has a tumble in a dripping puddle of slug slime before being carried off by an ant. Cat races to the rescue. Featured phonemes: x,y, qu.

3. Missing: This book features a short non fiction section on bugs as well a short story a Max, Mini and Ant search for Tiger and Cat. this story has more slick slug slime, much to the delight of my son as well as the first Bite of the series - a Preying Mantis. Featured phonemes: ch, th, sh, ng.

4. Bite Fright: The final book of this cluster sees team X battle the boss of this level, the Mantis Bite in order to progress pass through the exit door and progress to the next level. Featured phonemes: ai ee, igh.

Finally - phonetically decodable books that children really want to read.

Just over a year ago I was reviewing a number of books from Oxford's Project X series, which I dubbed the most exciting new development in children's books since Dr Seuss. Project X was a set of levelled readers which included both non fiction and fiction titles especially designed to bridge the attainment gap between boys and girls in literacy. While the series was designed to get boys reading - I see no reason why girls would not enjoy it every bit as much. There were 2 very strong female characters, and girls can enjoy action and adventure just as much as boys can. The series featured four children who discovered special watches which allowed them to shrink to micro size. At first it was all fun and games. I think every child has dreamt of shrinking down to the size of their toys, playing in their toy castles and riding in scalectrix cars - but soon it became an adventure as the team battled the evil Dr X.

I can't speak highly enough of my opinion of the original series, beginning with level one at age 5, within a year my son made it all the way to level 16 before growing bored with the series and moving on to young adult books and then graphic novels. These books made him really want to read, and I can remember him rushing to the post, happily abandoning a video game for a new book, and gave him the ability to read far more complex text. In addition to being a wonderful tool in developing literacy, they are also just good storybooks and both boys have rediscovered the original series now. My youngest absolutely loves them and Shrinky Kids books were one of the top items on their Christmas list.

But as much as we loved them - they did get some complaints for not teaching phonics. I happen to be a staunch supporter of phonics, and in addition to the Project X books - I spent a small fortune on Hooked on Phonics, Starfall Phonics and BOB books - however I believe most children will learn best with both phonics and whole language. Not every word in the English language is phonetic - and sounding out words takes too long. In addition to this, Phonics primers have never been very exciting - they were not the type of book children really wanted to read again and again. In all honesty - I never expected to find a completely decodable series of books with a high level interest for children - but I am over the moon to be proven wrong this time.

Project X Code is every bit as revolutionary as the original series - if not more so. The programme is designed for children with special educational needs or delayed reading levels - but I see absolutely no reason not to use this as beginning reading series for all children. The series uses synthetic phonics and is leveled just as the original series was to match the expected phonetic progression as children work through the different reading levels. It is not a series of phonics instruction ( project X has another series for that) but is is a series of phonetically decodable books beginning at a very easy reading level and progressing to more and more complex material in very tiny steps. This series provides very high interest reading material, which a child only just beginning to sound words out can start to enjoy.

So how did Project X accomplish the impossible and create a truly interesting series using only decodable words? Well - it appears they cheated just a little bit. They divided each book into two halves - the first half of which is 100% decodable. The second half is only 80% decodable. The idea is that in the beginning the child will read the first half of the book while a parent or teacher reads the other half until they are able to cope with both. Just as with the original series - the first books have limited text and a very small vocabulary, adding a few new words with each book until the child is reading fluently. Even the first books do have a distinct and enjoyable storyline - so much so that both my seven year old and my 4 year old enjoy listening to these. I was very surprised to see my seven year old take such an interest - he is very selective in picture books now, but the main theme of this story has really captivated him and he can't wait to get further books in the series as well. The main drawback at his age is that he can read the whole book in a few minutes - but at least he is still enjoying them. It is very unusual to find a book so easy to read that really interests an older child so much.

This specific book is not meant to be read by the child. My oldest read it easily, but it is intended to be read aloud by a parent or teacher to get the child interested in the series. It sets the scene for the rest of the series and is much larger as well. In this book a new micro-park is about to open , using technology similar to the watches used by Team X - or the shrinky kids as my son calls them. The entire them park is controlled by a computer named C.O.D.E. and built on a miniature scale. To enter the park, visitors must pass through a shrink ray, becoming micro-sized, but something has gone terribly wrong on opening day. The parks creator, Macro Marvel is trapped inside, sending out a desperate message to stop C.O.D.E. The super computer in the meantime is powering up with the intention of shrinking the entire world. Macro's daughter Mini, has rushed into the park to save him and is now trapped inside the park as well - the only ones who can help are Team X.

To defeat C.O.D.E. the team - with the help of Mini Marvel must travel through 4 levels in each of 14 worlds, overcoming the challenges and finally defeating the boss of each of world, very much like one would when playing the levels of a video game before taking on the main boss and clearing the game - or in this case series. To do this children must learn the vocabulary to read each book and read the code words at the end of each book. These are nonsense words used only to teach children to sound the words out and there is considerable debate as to the use of these. If your child is in school, this is part of the testing process so you may as well use them. If not the choice is yours, and I still haven't made up my mind. You can use the nonsense words or tape a wee post it over them using the most difficult words from the next book, or a combination of the non phonetic words from the book you are reading and new phonetic words from the next.

This book is illustrated using state of the art computer generated imagery, and it really is impressive. The books look like a video game, and the action , adventure and overall format make reading these very much like playing a video game. They have so much appeal - I believe most children will desperately want to read them. My four year old has now started reading his alphabet books regularly in an attempt to get ready to learn to read - specifically because he is desperate to read these himself. Completing each book gives the child the sense of satisfaction of completing a level on a favourite video game. Through out the series the shrinky kids will visit: a bug world, space, a dragon realm, a vehicle based attraction with all sorts of wild races, a jungle, an undersea zone, a waterfall zone, a polar region, a castle, a valley with volcanoes and dinosaurs, a zone with famous landmarks from all over the world, ancient Egypt, and finally Marvel Towers and C.O.D.E. control. There is certainly something here to fascinate any child - and this can easily be combined with other sources to encourage all sorts of learning.

This book was the most expensive of the series. I paid £7.15. This is because it is larger and includes an interactive CD- ROM with a short cartoon, teaching information and this book as well as the first 4 in the series all in an ebook format. The next books can be purchased from £3.20 each. This is terribly expensive - but I honestly believe a series like this can do more for my children than tuition in a high quality fee paying school - and compared to that - the price is peanuts indeed. It is a considerable investment - which is why I am really starting to collect the books now as story books before my youngest really needs them - but I can think of no better way to spend to my money then investing it in my children's education. So - all I can say is Thank God for Dooyoo who make it possible for me to afford some extras like this.

I think it is fairly obvious by now that I giving this book a full 5 stars - and that only because I can not give it 10. But don't take my word for it - you can read the whole book online here: http:// www.oup.com/ oxed/ primary/ projectx/ code/ Just take out the space after each /. This will give you a chance to see the quality of the animation as well. You can read the entire text of 4 of the main books on the Oxford Owl site as well, so you can see if this series suits you before buying any books. I read the free books with my children to gauge their interest - which was incredible before my first purchase. This series would work very well with or without the original series. I do feel the phonics set would be a real benefit to those using this, but it could be used with other phonics sets.