Reception and Year One readers- Ghost by Luk Depondt and Guido Van Genechten

There's nothing as good as a spooky book for encouraging young readers to delve into reading. Something about ghostly going-ons is naturally exciting for Primary aged children, and this wonderful book provides a fun reading experience.

"Ghost" is beautifully illustrated. The giant pages are full of large, simple cartoons which are amusing and clearly defined. There are so many styles and methods of illustrating picture books, and the paintings used here work well, and will provoke the interest of young readers.

The story is fairly simple- the young ghost tells the reader that 'if he were a ghost he'd...' which provides a good template for creative writing. Each ghostly activity is accompanied by a wonderful painted illustration which helps the reader to form an image of the sentence. This means that the book is very useful in helping children to develop their decoding skills; for instance, "I'd go "Boo" at the kids in the park" is illustrated thus:


With the ghost (and his bat) swooping in from the corner of the page, and the children running off the bottom and far right of the page, the meaning is clear. A less certain reader will be able to understand the meaning of the words from the image, and perhaps even raise a question as to why there is one boy not running away; so, the simple logic to this enjoyable book helps to build reading skills.

This big, colourful, enjoyable book could easily become a firm favourite of any young reader. It's a fine book to read with Reception and Year One classes, as the large pages and pictures mean it's easy to share with a class. Parents may also like this book too, as it's easy and fun to read with a child, and a good pick for a Halloween present.

Above: aaw, cute ghosts!

FREE RESOURCE: Guido Van Genechten has a website with a page of free colouring sheets to download (pdfs), all similar to the style he uses here- CLICK HERE

Year Two readers- Pigs Might Fly by Jonathan Emmett and Steve Cox

It's a fairly common idea for some writers- take a public domain story that is well known and update it in a comical way. "Pigs Might Fly" takes the story of the three little pigs and sets it... in an aviation competition. The front cover proudly proclaims that the book won a Red House Children's Book Award in 2006, an excellent organisation that will happily let schools and libraries borrow the current top 50 books for free (LINK to borrow the books).

The first impressions of the book come from the pupils in a Year Three class I recently worked with. The cover elicited responses of "Ooh, it looks exciting", "I think that will be a good book", and "There's a plane, he's coming to get them!" and a completely positive response from the pupils.

"Pigs Might Fly" is not a pointless reimaging of a traditional tale. Emmett and Cox simply take a well-known story and use laddish humour in an attempt to create a story that will appeal to boys. Indeed, Jonathan Emmett has talked of his desire to create stories for boys that connect to their interest in machines and vehicles, which is certainly a logical pursuit for a modern writer.

The illustrations are superb; bright and clear full colour pages are complimented by text that surrounds the main pictures in a variety of exciting fonts. Emmett's concept of the pigs making their planes from straw, wood, and metal (as the story states, "Whoever heard of an aeroplane made out of bricks?") is clever, and well realised in the illustrations. As for the story, well, you already know what happens in the end, but a Year 3 pupil I read this book with surmised, "Its like another different story anyway. And better."

Whilst "Pigs Might Fly" isn't the most memorable book, it is highly enjoyable and an interesting diversion that may- as Emmet hopes- enthuse some reticent readers. In using a familiar story as the basis for this book, many children will already have some knowledge of the text. The central refrain may have changed to "Let me win, little pig, let me win" but the familiarity maintained will ensure that young readers will have a helping hand in reading the book. For this reason, the book can be recommended to Year 2 readers, who may need some help with the few unfamiliar words in the book such as furious and barrel as well as the names of the pigs. Teachers of Year 3 pupils may want to use this story as the inspiration for writing modern updates of traditional tales- which is often an effective activity when initiated with roleplay.

Welcome to Readup v.2

Hello and welcome. This blog is an extension of www.readup.co.uk, and an attempt to rejuvenate the database format of the old website. Let's start at the beginning....

My name is Mark and I am a qualified Primary School teacher with a background in library work. I started to review children's books a couple of years ago in order to build a database that I could offer to parents looking to find good quality reading books for their children. Learning to read is such an important event in a child's life, and with modern distractions (games consoles, television, the internet) it is becoming harder to encourage children to read. "Why would I want to read a book?" is a cry often heard in schools- a tragic complaint for those of us who enjoy reading ourselves.

The truth is that books are seen by many children as being 'old-fashioned entertainment', and I can relate to this. The interaction and level of intensity offered by my PS3 is truly amazing, literally placing me as a F1 driver or a Ninja in feudal Japan. So perhaps books are simply outmoded? Well, yes, but books still do have something to offer- there are many amazing children's books available that offer a different form of entertainment to the technology that has developed so much in the last twenty years.

The intention of www.readup.co.uk (version 1) was to provide a database of books that I thought children would enjoy reading. If we can help to connect children with books they truly enjoy, then perhaps they will see reading as a useful and fun activity. Kids can love books. In practice, I have had classes squealing with delight when reading such comedy classics as "The Gaskitts" by Alan Ahlberg; quietly suspenseful as we ponder the mysteries in "The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang" by H.J.Press; and in solemn reflection as I whisper the "Night Time Tale" by Ruth Brown. Hopefully this blog will continue the work of www.readup.co.uk (version 1) and help many more parents and teachers to find wonderful books that will encourage reading.

Above: a scan of www.readup.co.uk (version 1)