Customer Reviews

Bob Books First! Level A, Set 1 (re-released as Bob Books Set 1- Beginning Readers)

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach first grade and also have a grown son; I use (d) the Bob books with all of my children. Many educators advocate big books in our current educational trends, but if you really want to guarantee a child's attention, use little books. Most children absolutely adore them! The Bob books are special because they really are written on a young child's level. I always have the "literary" quality books that are recommended for today's classroom, but my kids always want the Bob books or the little books I make for them. They also prefer the simple words, illustrations (Bob's are simple line drawings), and themes. Why? Because they are definitely written for children rather than adults who think that you are not providing a good education for children unless they have high quality literature in their hands. But, I ask you, parents and teachers, how valuable is it to have a cat named Aristotle or Aristophenes(sp?..who cares! at this age!) when you can name the characters Sam, or Matt, or Spot. The point is, reading should be easy to learn, not mind boggling. Get these Bob books! Get them all! And make up your own, as well. Then you will have your kids reading.....and just as important..........loving it! What age do you begin? Before they are born, in my opinion, as long as you are not "forcing" it on them. If you read to them as early as their entry into the world, and show that you enjoy it, reading will be as second nature to your children as anything else that you value.

I gave Bob Books to my son when he was four years old and quite proficient with his letters of the alphabet. He started reading, and he has been doing so ever since. Bet I don't have to tell you how happy it made me feel (althought now we have to stop at the library almost every day and pick up new "Easy Readers"). The Bob Books start with very simple words that can be sounded phonetically without knowing any of the rules, and then progress gradually, usually adding one or two new sounds per book. The books are very short and very simple in meaning, able to hold children's attention and giving them a huge sense of accomplishment upon completing each book. They are color coded for easy recognition of different levels. Excellent also for children learning English as a second language (my son). You can't go wrong with them, trust me, I am a savvy buyer.

We recently purchase the first set of Bob Books for my 4 yr old, and he just loves them. He is just thrilled that he can read a "whole book" by himself. He finds the stories very amusing, and I have a hard time getting him to put them away. Wonderful choice for a child who is just learning to put words and sentences together.

We got these for our son's fifth birthday. He had been working with some phonics cards for a while and knew most of the sounds. What we couldn't find, though, were books that were simple enough for him to practice the real reading. Most of the books just had too many different types of sounds and see-and-say words to allow him to practice.

The Bob Books have taken all of that away! These books have one, at most two, short sentences on each page. Most of the sounds in the sentences fall within one or two vowel sounds. This has really taken away the overwhelm that he felt before looking at whole paragraphs in other children's books. Now that he feels confident that he can read, he is progressing quickly into more and more difficult material.

Buy the Bob Books. I don't know ANYONE who has gotten them and been disappointed.

Once a child knows the basic letter sounds, he or she is ready for Bob books! I have 6 kids, and we homeschool. I used other books for my 2 oldest, but my son Alex began reading with Bob Books. He loves them!

They are written at a perfect gradient, beginning with 3-letter, short vowel sound words. They are written just as I would have written them!

I do wish the books were larger in size (not more pages, just bigger pages) and the pictures are just drawings - no color. An improvement of better, more colorful pictures and larger pages would get a 5-star vote from me.

These are great tools, and I recommend them for every beginning reader.

You may remember these books from your own childhood. How many of us learned to read by using these books?

If you've got a little one who is approaching that time in their lives, these are the books to get. My son is 3 and he loves these books. He recognizes a few words and he's eager to open them up every night.

The Amazon page says "Age 4," but these really may be appropriate for children just a bit younger as well.

My son started reading on his own and was having trouble getting through a whole Dr. Seuss without help. I wanted something more basic. When I looked at the Bob series, I thought it might be too basic, but it came highly recommended, so I bought it anyway.

First books out of the box, I was very disappointed. The binding is the same quality as a []magazine - staple through folded sheets of paper. The stories were so boring. The pictures so simplistic. Line drawings that look like someone doodled them during a boring meeting at work.

Then I watched my son. He actually read the words. Read every word. No making things up when the word was too hard. No making things up when he thought he knew what was next. He actually read.

And since the words were simple, he was able to pay attention to the story at the same time. On the other books, he was reading the words - but not getting the story. With the Bob books, he laughed and giggled. He is getting practice now. When he gets to where he can read the whole first series without a mis-step, we'll start the second series.

Reading take practice and going through the simple stuff until you can read words at a time instead of letters at a time is great. Boring as all get out for the grown up - but great for the kid.

Do NOT get these books for a 2 or 3 year old thinking that they can learn early. They will just tear the books up.

Do NOT get these to read to your kids. You'll just fall asleep.

DO get these when your child is ready to learn on their own. They will love the satisfaction of reading a whole book themselves. And you will enjoy seeing them get better with each reading.

I honestly thought I was wasting my money. I can honestly say that I was wrong. This was worth every penny and then some. I now know what my daughter's first book will be....

It was truly amazing to me. When we started our just turned 5 year old on these books, he was having difficulty sounding out the words. By the time we reached the 12th book, he was reading them with little to no difficulty. I would certainly recommend these to anyone with little ones! They have greatly improved my sons reading ability. He keeps asking when we are going to get the next set. It has given him much confidence to be able to read by himself.

A friend lent me the first set of books for my daughter who learned to read with them. I searched everywhere for good books for her to read and couldn't find any, so I have just ordered the whole series of Bob Books. They contain simple words like "Mat sat. Sam sat." But they are stories and good ones too! GET THEM!

This is an excellent series of books for new readers. My son started kindergarten in September and was very frustrated that he was unable to read. A lot of books like Cat and the Hat have some words that he can and can't read, but Bob Books First have three letter words that are easy for him to sound out and read. Bob Books First is a 12 book series that build off of each other, so his confidence grew as he went from the easy red books to the more challenging yellow books with longer sentences. I am looking forward to going through the entire series now that my son has mastered the first set, and I strongly recommend the first set for young children who want to learn how to read.