Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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!