Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have never posted a negative review before but I'm so dumbfounded after reading all the 5 star reviews. I thought I should share my point of view to help others weigh the pros and cons to see if this book is really a good fit. I learned it certainly was NOT a good fit for us after reviewing this book in whole. I bought this book because my son tested on the low end of average on a test, so not a serious problem, just in need of some focus and learning test taking skills. I spoke to my mother about this book as she worked for an excellent school system writing the actual reading tests given to kids, then for a publisher of text books. She stated that kids at this age need to learn both strong reading comprehension as well as good test taking skills... that the writers of these tests try to fool kids into wrong answers, in a way. They do this by making the answer options all similar to things mentioned in the paragraph in question, leaving the correct answer not clear to those that either didn't bother to fully read the relevant paragraph or to those that are truly having trouble retaining the facts as represented in the paragraph. However, this book (in my opinion) is full of questions so simple, little or no reading let alone comprehension seems to be necessary to find the correct answer. This might even actually teach kids that it is often ok to skip or skim the segment and that common sense can often answer questions correctly. This could be devastating if a parent is hoping to improve test taking skills and help teach a child to focus and retain important information they have read and once the child takes a real test, is lost in the weeds. On the other hand, this may be good for kids that have a major reading and vocab issue that needs attention. Here are some examples of what I am talking about. These are questions in the book. If you can answer these on your own without reading a word of the paragraph on which the question is based... and you think your 3rd grader can, too, then you may want to keep looking for a tougher book. In this story, the word SIMPLE means: a. easy b. happy c. hidden d. loving (Hint: The answer is so easy, a 3rd grader can surely get it without comprehending anything.) What do we use for money today? a. gold b. shells c. bills and coins d. beans and beads (Hint: Welp, if a 3rd grade thinks you paid beans for this, the purchaser didn't pay too much.) And much more just like this. In short, this book is probably a good book for someone that has a child really struggling. Those in need of a little help and focus, but on grade level, will probably need something with more umph and substance. This isn¡¦t a lot of money to lose, but for folks excited to help work with their kids on this like I am, the delay caused by having to order another book is disappointing, so heads up. º