Guide
Comic novels: 7 alternatives to Greg's diary
by Michael Restin
From adventures to wildlife: which books inspire first-time readers?
16-2-2024
Translation: machine translated
With the qualified judgement of a seven-year-old first reader, we put educational reading books to the test - with lots of fun, addictiveness and unexpected excitement.
An endless, exciting, funny, thrilling and entertaining world opens up when children begin to read first individual words, then whole sentences and finally their first books themselves. We are currently at this important stage and have tested three different learn-to-read books with the expert opinion of a seven-year-old beginning reader.
Guinness World Records for First Readers: Pets
Once a week, my son's class has the opportunity to spend an hour browsing through the school's own library. Week after week, one book is the highlight for the kids: The Guinness Book of World Records. It was therefore clear that we definitely wanted to test a version of the record-breaking classic for beginner readers. The decision was made in favour of the topic of pets.
Wonderful, it's easy to learn. For example, we learn about the oldest pet goldfish called Tish, who lived to the proud age of 43 and - just like us humans - gradually changed his colour to silvery white. Or the fast turtle Bertie, who holds the turtle speed record at 28 centimetres per second. This makes Bertie twice as fast as his turtle mates.
This pleases: Perfect little reading snacks for learning to read
- Large font
- short sentences
- small reading units
- colourful and varied illustrations
- makes you want to read on
Guinness World Records for first readers is also available on other topics: [[product:32413360,39975572,32413362]]
The school of magical animals investigates: The green goo letter
What we also like: The most important characters are introduced on a double page at the beginning. My son, who barely knows the book series so far, keeps flicking back to it as he reads to look up who is who.
A surprise awaits us at the end: the magic puzzle. Nine questions about the story we have just read, the answers to which are inserted into a crossword puzzle and result in a solution word.
This pleases: Cult factor with a really exciting story
- exciting case that makes you want to read on
- familiar characters
- short sentences
- large font
- lots of beautiful pictures
- exact recommendation according to reading level
- reading aid for difficult words with colourful syllables
- magical puzzle included
"The school of magical animals investigates" also in other cases: [[product:14607214,16419573,20757906]]
In addition, it is part of the Carlsen series "Einfach Lesen lernen", which has many other stories for first-time readers up its sleeve.
Leserabe: Football adventures for learning to read
The third first-reader series that we are taking a closer look at is a classic from the Ravensburger publishing house: the Leserabe books. The choice of topics here is huge, we chose the football adventures to start with. If my son then wants to read more on the topic, he'll also find what he's looking for here.
There are three different reading levels that build on each other and correspond roughly to grades 1-3. My choice was slightly off with a 1st reading level book, a level 2 book would have been better for the second grader. However, the seven-year-old expert sees this less critically, he is simply happy about the few words per page. The font is as large as promised on the cover: it exceeds the font size of the other educational reading books once again.
What we like: Large selection of topics with recommended reading
There are many more Reading Envy books, so there will be a topic for every interest: [[product:25119443,32413358,20757906]]
Big letters, small words, lots of pictures
I have only presented three of countless reading books here. There are reading books for different levels on almost every topic. For example, the "Why-Why-Why-Why" books for first-time readers also offer a wide range of knowledge topics. We want to test these next
Which books have helped your children learn to read?
Anna Sandner
Senior Editor
Anna.Sandner@galaxus.deScience editor and biologist. I love animals and am fascinated by plants, their abilities and everything you can do with them. That's why my favourite place is always the outdoors - somewhere in nature, preferably in my wild garden.
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