posted on 22 Jul 2018

Two Maverick Arts Publishing Early Readers

I have written before about this engaging new series of reading books produced by Maverick Arts Publishing that aim to provide an interesting and aesthetically pleasing early experience of learning to read. When I was asked to review two more, I was intrigued to find out whether  they have been able to keep up the excellent quality of the first ones I looked at.

‘I Can Get It and Hop In’ by Jenny Jinks, illustrated by Louise Forshaw is one of the range of ten Pink Band selection of stories which are designed to support beginner readers. As such they have minimal repetitive text and bold illustrations that are designed to entice and encourage children to persevere. The plots in reading scheme books are often pretty dull, especially as so much repetition is needed but these two little stories are quite eventful. Mal the monkey is sad because he can’t catch his red balloon and so other animals do their best to help him out. Using speech bubbles as a useful way to focus on the phrase; a rhino, a zebra and then a giraffe take turns to confidently assert ‘I can get it, Mal’ As each ones fails, a new animal stands on top of the previous animal’s head so that by the time a hippo has a go at reaching it, the tower of animals collapses and the balloon is nudged into the smiling monkey’s paws.

The second story gives us another little adventure with the monkey and the giraffe and some other characters. I like the way that the lively illustrations spread across each double page spread encouraging the reader to move from left to right, and sometimes top to bottom.

‘Viv the Vet and Top Dog’ by Katie Dale, illustrated by Giusi Capizzi is one of  ten books in the Red Band selection of stories which follows on from the Pink Band. There is consequently a little more text in relation to the illustrations but there is still plenty to look at and talk about. This again uses plenty of speech bubbles to move the story along as we see the very competent Viv the Vet coping with a range of animals in distress. When her van gets stuck, she is helped out by the very grateful owners. The second story shifts the attention to some show-offy dogs who tell us about their various qualities. Scruff is much more modest but it turns out that he belongs to Viv the Vet who rates him highly.

As with all the readers, each individual story is prefaced with the chance to practise writing a letter from the alphabet, high frequency words that appear in the story, tips for reading plus a fun activity. I like the way that each band is written and illustrated by different people which provides good variety. Attention has also been paid to using the lively, colourful illustrations across each double page spread which helps the reader to move from left to right, and sometimes from top to bottom.

It is clear that this is a reading scheme that has been very carefully designed and takes into account the language style and phonics and has been produced with advice from a leading educational consultant.

As a former Early Years teacher, I remain impressed with this series of reading books and would confidently recommend it to current teachers and to parents as well.

 

Karen Argent

July 2018