Customer Reviews

Now I'm Reading! Playful Pals, Level 1

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Playful Pals is one of two Level 1 books in the Now I'm Reading! series. The set contains ten 10-page books which feature short-vowel sounds simple consonant sounds, and beginning sight words. The ten books are: Rat Naps, Fox Hops, Pig Sits, Bug on a Rug, A Bed for Pets, The Plant, Hop Frog Hop, Drips and Spills, A Trunk for Buck, and Egg Legs. The set comes with a Parent Guide booklet which explains how to get the most out of the books and help your child to be a successful reader. Each book comes with 5 incentive stickers (50 in all) to reward your little reader. Books 1-5 feature mostly three-letter words and some four-letter words. Books 6-10 feature mostly four-letter words and some five-letter words.

The books are great for holding the child's attention and interest through funny stories and pictures. My child learned to read with this series and has taken those phonics skills to more advanced levels. These are books your child will WANT to read! Highly recommend!

As a homeschooling mom of a 7-year-old girl who is - make that, was - struggling with reading at every turn, let me highly recommend these books. She loves them! No more tears, tantrums, just a joyous smile of accomplishment! Take it from someone who has shopped - extensively - this is what you need for reading training without needing a master's in education yourself!

We tried so many beginner reader books and they just did not hold the interest of my boy. I almost created my own. But then we discovered this series and since then, he just cruised through them and is now an avid reader.

The pictures are colorful, the stories are cute and intriguing, and they have stickers that relate to each story that can be used as rewards for completing each small book.

We have now moved on to the "independent" ones and he still goes back and wants to cruise through the levels 1-4 ones just for fun.

Highly recommend!!

I highly recommend these books by Nora Gaydos for parents who are teaching their child to read at home. My son has known the sounds of all the letters and has been able to sound out three and four letter words with short vowel sounds since he was three. I thought he would be an early reader, but at age 5 now he has not liked any books we have tried as beginning readers until now. He became so bored with the Bob Books, McGuffey's primer, Step into Reading books, etc... that he started pretending he didn't know the sounds anymore. He still loved me to read to him, though, but he would not try to read by himself.

Then I ordered these books a few days ago and amazingly, he was so intrigued by the illustrations, he sat down and read three of them straight through to me. He has never been a fan of stickers, but for some reason, the incentive to place a sticker inside each book when you finish reading it really has appealed to him. We got the Animal Antics and the Playful Pals sets two days ago and he has already read five of the books three times each by himself! I am so amazed and excited that he is happy about reading again.

These books are very well done. They follow a good phonics program, with funny stories that actually make sense. The illustrations are superb and really get the child interested in what is happening in the story. I wish I could give these more than five stars! I also recommend the other Level 1 books called Animal Antics. The books are a little bigger but the stories are different and continue in the same vein as these Playful Pals. Both sets contain 10 readers each. You could do the first five of each set first, which are easier, and then the second five of each set. Happy Reading!

my son now six has known his letter sounds since he was four and just would not be willing to sit down and read even the simpliest of books to me, and I have a lot of emergent readers and leveled readers. This was the set That did it for us. He begs to read these books, he thinks they are so funny and they are wrote in a way that works for him. These books really concentrate on phonics and not very much on sight words, so be prepared to back up this set with books that use more sight words, like "go dog Go" and "Are you my mother" from DR. Suess.
If your child is resisting reading this set just might do it for you. 10 pages per book with a couple words to start and building onto the sentence with each page, encourages child to sound out a new word or two each page, but uses lots of familiar words from the previous page to help the child stay motivated and unlike other phonics readers these stories make sense and are fun to read.

This set focuses on consenant blends and is the second in the set of level one books about animals, the other level one set uses mostly 3 letter words, while this one has a larger variety of four letter words, but still using short vowel sounds. Words like: splat and flat.

The level 2 set works on long vowel sounds
and the level 3 set continues to add new letter combinations.

These books are wonderful. Truly written by someone who knows kids and knows phonics. They are colorful and attractive, the stories cute and funny, and the difficulty level is exactly right. They are just what kids need who are learning to read. I am a homeschooling mom, and I haven't found better books for this purpose! HIGHLY recommend!

I rarely write reviews, but felt compelled to in this case. I can't speak highly enough about these books. My four year old little boy who is extremely busy and rough and tumble will sit down to read these with me. Better yet, he's laughing at all of them - he thinks they are very silly so he doesn't realize how much he's actually learning since it's fun for him. We have virtually every set of 'learn to read' books available and these are by far our favorite for very beginners. The illustrations are bright and funny, the sentences progress in a way that reinforces the learning and the stories are very silly, which is appealing to young children. I also appreciate the self-contained folder to keep them organized. We have Bob books everywhere and can't keep track of them. (Plus they aren't colorful or as well written.) I just wish there were more in the set at every level - 10 books doesn't feel like enough for a series he enjoys so much.

I have shopped around for so many phonics books and did not stop until my daughter and I found this one. It is the best!

My daughter graduated from reading 3-letter words to reading independently by going through Nora Gaydos's 4 volumes. The progression of each book helped her gain confidence and the brilliant and colorful illustration lends to children developing their own insight into the story. The length is just right so children are never too tired to complete the whole book.

The stickers are also a great motivational tool. My daughter always feels such a sense of accomplishment when she finishes off the stickers for each book.

The only thing the series lacks is the availability of additional stickers so younger siblings can enjoy the process of learning to read too.

This was a great way for my five year old in helping him read. He was so excited about learning how to read on his own and getting stickers for completing each book. I love these books and am planning to but levels 2 & 3.

My daughter is just beginning to learn to read and this series is excellent. The stickers are very motivating and the repetition is a real confidence builder. The binder type layout is very easy to keep everything together too.