Customer Reviews

Animal Antics: Now I'm Reading! (Level 1)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Animal Antics" is one of the two Level 1 book sets in the Now I'm Reading! series. It contains ten 10-page books which introduce new readers to short-vowel sounds. They feature colorful, funny stories which take the child through an entire story line while using basic phonics skills. Each story begins with two words, then each page continues to build on those two words thereby giving the child confidence in going on to the next page. The 10 books in this set are: Fat Cat, Hot Dog, Pig Jigs, Rub-a-Dub Cub, Wet Legs, Crab Trap, Frog Cops, Fish Gift, Stuck Duck, and Elk Yelps. Books 1 to 5 (as explained in the Parent Guide which comes with the set) are comprised of mostly three-letter short-vowel words and some four-letter words. They introduce some consonant blends, sight words, and the word ending -s. Books 6 to 10 focus on short-vowel words comprised mostly of four-letter words. They use consonant blends and the beginning or at the end of words, and use additional sight words. Each book comes with 5 stickers (total of 50) to be used as incentives.

An example from the book "Hot Dog" - each sentence is a page:
A dog.
A hot dog.
A hot, hot dog.
A hot dog got on a log.
A hot dog got on a log in the fog.
A hot dog got lost on a log.
A hot dog got lost on a log in the fog.
Sob! Sob!
Stop the log!
A hot dog flops off the log.

My son loves these books and this series is responsible for him learning to read. The skills and confidence he has gained through using these books has taken him on to more advanced levels with great enthusiasm. I highly recommend them!

I bought this set of 10 books for my 4 yr old who is already starting to read. I had already bought 2 sets of the Bob Books. The Bob Books are good, but this set is really good. It even has colored pictures, which the Bob Books do not. This set also comes with stickers that match each story, so that when your child successfully reads a book, he/she can place a sticker on the inside cover showing that he/she has completed it! It would be beneficial for your child to have a good amount of sight words under his/her belt before attempting these books. My son knows around 40 sight words (a, the, and, he, is, it, on, can, yes, no, etc.) It made it a lot easier, because then he just needed to work on sounding out the other words in the book such as: log, fog, dog, hat, pig, wig, etc. I totally recommend this series of books for beginning readers.

Kids and Parents Love it! My kindergarten kid loves this set of books. Not only do the books progress in a logical series, building skills one upon the other, there are "study questions" and a list of skills covered at the back of each book. And, a Parent Guide to assist you in using the program.

Font Counts! Importantly, the FONT used in the book corresponds to the letter forms children use when learning to write. (For example, the "a" in the font I'm writing in is not the form used in Kindergarten printing lessons where lower-case "a" looks like a circle stuck to a stick.) The use of a "child-friendly" font enables us to reinforce classroom writing lessons by having our child copy the text of the corresponding "Now I'm Reading -- Animal Antics" book into her note pad. In this way she is building corresponding reading and writing skills at the same time.

Recommended Improvement. One opportunity for improving this set does exist --provide an index/inventory in the Parent Guide of the "Skills in this story" list now found at the back of each book. Such an index/inventory up front expedites the process of linking school lessons to the appropriate book. For example, when our child's classwork is focusing on "a,and,to, in, no, is, the" we work with book 5 "Wet Legs" that covers those words. (We made our own index/inventory by copying each of the 10 lists of skills to the back cover of the Parent Guide.)

This book and the follow up titles make reading fun for the beginning reader. My child has a sense of accomplishment after she finishes each book in the series. The books are well sequenced, allowing the new reader to focus on learning a key lesson with each title. The format of the product is fabulous. It is a great learning tool for both at home and in the classroom. As a mother of two, I highly recommend it!

It is so hard these days to find interesting books that focus on phonics AND child confidence that don't have an overwhelming number of undecodable words. This book is a treasure if you are looking for a program focusing on beginning phonics (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) and Consonant Blends and Sight Words in a format that your child will enjoy while building up confidence. Each soft cover book is about 5" by 5" and has about 10 easy reading pages that slowly builds up the sentences with each page, (e.g. A cat. A tan cat. A tan fat cat.) yet is still able to hold a story (e.g cat loses a race but his friends still clap for him). The books are Fat Cat, Hot Dog, Pig Jig, Rub-A-Dub Cub, Wet Legs, Crab Trap, Frog Cops, Fish Gift, Stuck Duck, and Elk Yelps. My daughter is so happy to be able to say she can read a book without help! It truly builds up their confidence and is exactly what reluctant beginning readers need. The set comes in a nice little hardcover case, easy for readers to carry around, and has individual see-through pockets to keep each book safe in or insert the back flaps to make one big book, and has a magnetic closure tab, to keep it all together and give kids that special-book/diary type of feel so they'll want to take it to bed. It also comes with a list of questions for kids, parents advice book and stickers. The illustrations are simple, funny and enjoyable. I am so happy I found this indispensable teaching tool! Highly recommended!

I just discovered this author and what a nice set of easy reader books. I will be adding more of these to my library as I am teaching children to read at my day care. Very sturdy books. Each sentence as a couple more words, but then around page 5 or so the sentence changes. Challenges beginner readers to pay attention to the words. But still not too difficult.

I have searched high and low for beginning readers books. Everything I ran across was not as basic as I would have expected. My four year old son is actually reading these books. They are perfect and each page builds on the previous pages. I highly recommend this series to any and everyone with young children!!!

These books are fantastic for the beginning reader. My daughter, who really used to fight me when it came to reading, loves these books. She loves the pictures and the stories. They are just the right length and have just the right number of words per page that she does not get bored or frustrated reading the story. She often wants to read two or three books. These books have very simple words that are very appropriate for a child who is just beginning to string letters together into words. It is an excellent place to start. We have worked through both level 1 and level 2 with tremendous success. Onto level 3!

I am in love with these books that I ordered all levels, all serries available. Highly recommended. However, for a lower price, you can get Playful Pals: Level 1 (20 books) instead of Animal Antics: Now I'm Reading! (Level 1)(10 books). The Playful Pals: Level 1 includes 10 books from Animal Antics. The size of Animal Antics is smaller though.Now I'm Reading!: Animal Antics - Level 1 (Now I'm Reading)

This is a good collection of easy readers for beginning readers. The stories are entertaining and colorful.