Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers
by Bobby Lynn Maslen
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Book Reviews of Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers
Book Review: My original review has changed...
Summary: 2 Stars
I have to admit, when I first got the Bob Books for my son, I was very excited about them. I thought the gradual pace of vowel and consonant introduction would make reading easier and give a natural progression. My 4-year old son read the first 3 or 4 books in the series, we were both excited, and all was well. I was thinking 4 or 5 stars.
Then within a week, my son refused to read the books. I knew that he could - he was certainly capable - but anytime I mentioned them, he would whine, complain and tell me that he didn't want to. This from the boy who is a book nut and would have me read to him 24-7 if possible! He would sit with me so I could read other books to him, and even try to read them himself, but wanted nothing to do with the Bob Books. This went on for months with the same response.
It wasn't until I started doing a bunch of literacy reading and research for my job that I realized the probable reason why the Bob Books are gathering dust on our shelves when all of the other books are well loved. They are dull. They are boring and can hardly be qualified as stories. Does anyone really talk like that? "Mat sat. Cat sat. Mat and cat sat." No wonder he would rather I read him books like "The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales" by Heather Amery or "Frederick" by Leo Lionni or classic tales like "The Gingerbread Man" or "The Fox and the Crow."
In my research, I came across two books that I highly recommend to anyone who wants their child to learn to read. These are "The Read Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease and "Reading Magic" by Mem Fox. Trelease talks about the pleasure aspect of reading - humans want to do things that give them pleasure and shy away from things that don't, it's just human nature. When we make reading more of a chore for a child or give them boring books to read, we are taking away that aspect of pleasure that will make them want to read.
A national committee called the Commission on Reading (funded by the US Dept of Education) did a 2-year study of thousand of research projects related to reading. Their report had two primary findings. The first is that the single most important activity to build success in reading is to read aloud to your children. The second is to continue reading aloud to them throughout the grades. (Yep, that means through high school, not just until they can read themselves.)
So choose books and stories for your children that they will enjoy - and that you will enjoy! Build their library and read to them as often as you can - in the morning, before bed, while they are eating lunch, while they play in the tub, use books on CD in the car, etc. If you don't know where to start, "The Read Aloud Handbook" has a list of over 1000 suggested titles in various categories to read to children. My son was reading at just over 4 years old and, other than the Bob Books failure, all I ever did was read to him. And read and read.
Book Review: Great way to get reading fast!
Summary: 5 Stars
To see more reviews, check out the item in its previous packaging (the content has not changed) by looking up ISBN 0439145449.
Bob Books come in 5 sets on 3 levels, and they cover the fundamentals of reading through about half of the Kindergarten level, which is lower than either of the other programs. Each set contains 8-12 books for the child to read, with a line or two of text per page.
Unlike many programs, there is little to no direction for the parent. However, they are carefully crafted to introduce the sounds in a systematic and maximally rewarding way, as well as carefully choosing sight words. The very first book requires that the child know the sounds of only four letters (M, A, S, T) and one sight word (on). The rest of the first set of 12 books (12 pages each) introduces the rest of the alphabet and short-vowel sounds, carefully reviewing everything learned, as well as a handful of high-utility sight words. The second set of 12 books (12 pages each) reinforces what was learned in the first set with more text per page, more plurals, more sight words, and a few blends. The second level begins with the third set, which has 10 books (16 pages each) and introduces more text, more blends, and some compound words, while the fourth set (4 with 16 pages and 4 with 24 pages) has more blends, more sight words, and long compound words. The final set, in the third level (4 with 16 pages and 4 with 24 pages), has longer stories and introduces long vowels.
The thing my son likes most is that I'm not telling him what to do most of the time, and he doesn't have to repeat books!
Some parents find that the level of progression slows after the first set, but we're going to do them all. It helps my son acquire speed and fluency painlessly.
This isn't sufficient to bring a child to the end of the Kindergarten level, but it gets them reading basic books very fast! Many people like the later part of Nora Gaydos' series to follow up. I will use an out-of-print series that I got from my aunt for free :-) called Scholastic Phonics Ready Readers (ISBN 0439325099 and others) starting with books 37. Afterwards, there are many classic early reader books that he can read, like Little Bear and Frog and Toad.
The only bad points: The words are handwritten, which means that despite the excellent handwriting, there is some inconsistency in spacing and letter shapes that will give some readers problems. Also, if your child likes to gaze for a l-o-n-g time at every picture, painless swifty becomes agaonizing. For that case, I recommend McGuffey's Eclectic Readers
Book Review: "Mommy, Mommy, I Am Learning To READ!!!!!"
Summary: 5 Stars
My four year old daughter has wanted read on her own for a few months now. She knows all her letters and their sounds, a lot of sight words, has been printing letters and words, and loves being read to, which we do for at least 30 minutes every night. But she sees Mommy, Daddy, and big sister all reading their own books, and she wants to do it herself. And clearly, she is ready.
Enter the BOB BOOKS, SET 1: BEGINNING READERS. The BOB BOOKS are first readers, almost reminiscent of Dick and Jane, and See Spot Run. Set 1 is made up of 12 books, each containing a complete, very simple story using three letter words and just a handful of letters. The 8-page stories are accompanied by simple, yet detailed pen and ink drawings that clearly reflect the story. With one to two short sentences per page, the handwritten print is very clear and easy to read. As your child progresses through the series, previous sounds and concepts are reinforced, and new ones are slowly added, building up reading vocabulary and sight words. Punctuation is introduced, and it is really exciting to hear my wee one get the inflections just right when she sees a question mark or an exclamation point.
My child really loves the BOB BOOKS. Even though they are simple, she can find humor and fun in these little stories. She raced through the first four books on the very first night we read these, clearly signaling her readiness and willingness to begin reading. The next four books were a bit more challenging, but she patiently sounded out all the words until she could easily read those books, too. The final four in this series continue to build on previous lessons and add even more complexity.
My daughter is very proud of her accomplishments and has gained great confidence in her abilities. Every night we sit down to read, and she is very excited to read a few of the older BOB BOOKS, and then move on to some new ones. Reading books to mommy makes her feel so grown up, and it makes mommy very proud. We've also been able to add some more difficult books into the mix, like Hop on Pop and some of the Biscuit the Dog books. She can easily apply the skills she is mastering with the BOB BOOKS to these other books as well.
I MOST HIGHLY RECOMMEND the BOB BOOKS, SET 1: BEGINNING READERS for young ones who want to begin reading. There are 4 more sets in the BOB BOOKS series, and I will be buying them all. Clearly, this system works. I cannot tell you how thrilling it is to hear your child say, "Mommy, I am growing up! I can READ!"
Book Review: now I'm reading...
Summary: 2 Stars
I had heard about the Bob books for several years. And my four year old is just starting to read. We tried them. I thought they would be great! But, I also found two sets of Level 1 Readers from the Now I'm Reading series. They're the same size and length, but my daughter loves the Now I'm Reading Readers. In contrast to the Bob Books, which are black and white, the Now I'm Reading readers are colorful and humorous. Before you buy the bob books, check out the Now I'm Reading books. You can see a preview on Amazon of both Bob Books and the Now I'm Reading books or a lot of stores carry them now so you can look at them in person.
A couple notes about short readers...
1) Bob books are black and white. If you have a very visual reader, you might want to find some that are color or that you are comfortable with them coloring in. (25 mini-books that teach word families is a set of books you can copy and let them color).
2) These books will help younger readers gain confidence. Most of my friends that like these books have two, three, or four year olds. Older readers who are practicing their phonics and are five or six may not enjoy these as much. The Now I'm Reading readers are more like the picture books with color that other kids in their classes would be reading. But, note that the Now I'm Reading readers do include more sight words than the Bob Books. This can take a little more repetition to help students really be able to read them.
3) Take it slow. Studies have shown that whether a child reads well before age 5 is not a predictor that they will be a good reader who loves to read later on. Actually, it's a predictor that they won't. I've seen it in myself--the feeling that they need to start learning now! But, really, they don't. They (and we) can take our time and enjoy the process of them learning to read! So don't get discouraged if it's a struggle for them to learn to read--it will come--in time. It's a bit like potty training, I think. Just when you think they're not ever going to get it, then they do!
Book Review: Great books for beginner readers
Summary: 5 Stars
These books are great books for beginner readers and I mean beginner readers. These books are not books to be read to your children and they are not books for children who know a great deal of sight words. If you've never helped a child to read then you have no idea how frustrating it can be for you and for them. For starters, when I child learns sight words the number of words they know in relation to the number of words in a sentence can be very low. For example, in many of the stage 1 books that you may buy at Walmart or Barnes and Noble, a true beginner may only know one or two words on a page. This can be very frustrating.
The Bob series concentrates on a specific sound or word family and limits the sentence length to four words. Why? So that there is repetition and a child can remember the words and ultimately read the book. Also, each story is only about 5 pages long so children don't get tired out.
I read some reviews where people said that the stories are not imagintative, involved, and their children got bored. Well yea if you are reading to them this is going to be the case. The stories aren't involved and are redundate. I can see where children may become bored if it is being read to them but for a child who is learning to read/gathering a wider amount of sight words the books can be challenging.
Oh and another reviewer commented that sentences like "Mat sat" are not good sentences and children don't need to learn names. However, this is not about learning names but rather for children to solidfy their knowledge in rhyming applications, sounds, and word families. For example, in school the teacher may say to a child who knows the words "mat", if you take away the "M" and add a "s" or a "sss" sound, what do have. In essence it is familiarizing the child with the fact that most words are made from smaller sight words. In this case, "at".