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BOB Books Beginning Readers: Set 1 is the best choice for your early reader
Pros
Simple text that makes reading easy for kids; Lots of repetition
Cons
Story might not be "interesting" enough for some kids
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
BOB Books are the answer to your "learning to read" prayers and Set 1 is the place to begin!
The hardest part of getting my oldest child reading was finding good phonics readers that she could feel confident with and interesting to read. A friend suggested the BOB Books to me, but I knew that the characters looked too "boring" to her. On a whim, I picked up the BOB Books Beginning Readers: Set 1 from the library to see if my middle child would be receptive to it, and it was clearly the best educational move I've made for her thus far.
What are BOB Books?
Written by Bobby Lynn Maslen, BOB Books are little boxes of phonics readers that gradually progress in each set. Each set consists of twelve slim booklets (eight pages of story in each one), with an introduction to the new sound or concept at the beginning of each book. There are sets that focus on beginning readers, advancing beginners, word families, complex words, long vowels and sight words.
Maslen was a kindergarten teacher for 13 years and drew from her experience to make simple little booklets to provide extra reading instruction for her students. The books were so effective that she started publishing them and now millions of children get the joy of learning to read with BOB Books. The books feature simple illustrations by Maslen's husband, John Maslen, which would not be too difficult for young kids to draw copies of.
BOB Books Set 1: Beginning Readers
The first set in the BOB series, Set 1 starts out very simply with single word titles (Mat, Sam, Dot and Mac). Mat contains basic one and two word sentences ("Mat. Mat sat. Sam. Sam sat."). Starts out boring, but looks silly when they start sitting on each other's heads. The books in the first set all contain simple words with short vowel sounds, eventually reading every letter in the alphabet (except "q"), with one book adding in numbers 1-10 and another book focusing on reading questions.
The pay-off in trying out BOB Books comes at the end of the first book, when your child gets so excited that he (or she, in my case) read a "whole entire book!" That's one of the things that are so great about BOB Books: the books are so short that kids quickly build more confidence in their reading ability as they progress through the series and see that they are reading more difficult books.
The books in each set are divided by color into three sub-groups. Each sub-group of booklets has a different color on the cover. This color is also the only color that is splashed into John Maslen's simple black and while drawings. For example, the first four books are red, and Mat's pants are red and white checkered. At first glance, the sub-groups don't seem to have much purpose other than color variety, but after reading through these books with my kindergartner, I've noticed that she feels a major sense of accomplishment when she graduates from one color of book to the next.
How we use BOB Books
I started with my kindergartner very simply, with book 1. This is the first phonics reader I've had in which she can sound out every single word just based on her basic letter sounds she's learned in school. Most of the Scholastic readers I've used require a basic knowledge of certain words to make it through the first page, but not BOB. Before bed, my daughter reads her BOB books to me, as far as she can get before exhaustion (which is usually not more than three books). When she can completely read through the book with no mistakes on the first try, we put it back in the box, and she doesn't have to read that one during our sessions anymore.
We started on Set 1 two months ago and are now on books 8 and 9 (my daughter is really having trouble with the short "u" sound). With the holidays, we've taken some breaks, so I imagine that if we had been consistently reading every day, she would be starting "the orange box" (Set 2) by now.
Overall Recommendation
I am a huge fan of BOB Books. If anything, I feel like I failed my older daughter by not getting these when she was starting out reading. She has a hard time sounding out words, and I think the BOB Books would have helped her a lot. My five year old is thriving with the BOB Books and got very excited to find Set 2 in her stocking on Christmas morning. I highly recommend this series for teaching kids to read once they know their basic letter sounds.
What are BOB Books?
Written by Bobby Lynn Maslen, BOB Books are little boxes of phonics readers that gradually progress in each set. Each set consists of twelve slim booklets (eight pages of story in each one), with an introduction to the new sound or concept at the beginning of each book. There are sets that focus on beginning readers, advancing beginners, word families, complex words, long vowels and sight words.
Maslen was a kindergarten teacher for 13 years and drew from her experience to make simple little booklets to provide extra reading instruction for her students. The books were so effective that she started publishing them and now millions of children get the joy of learning to read with BOB Books. The books feature simple illustrations by Maslen's husband, John Maslen, which would not be too difficult for young kids to draw copies of.
BOB Books Set 1: Beginning Readers
The first set in the BOB series, Set 1 starts out very simply with single word titles (Mat, Sam, Dot and Mac). Mat contains basic one and two word sentences ("Mat. Mat sat. Sam. Sam sat."). Starts out boring, but looks silly when they start sitting on each other's heads. The books in the first set all contain simple words with short vowel sounds, eventually reading every letter in the alphabet (except "q"), with one book adding in numbers 1-10 and another book focusing on reading questions.
The pay-off in trying out BOB Books comes at the end of the first book, when your child gets so excited that he (or she, in my case) read a "whole entire book!" That's one of the things that are so great about BOB Books: the books are so short that kids quickly build more confidence in their reading ability as they progress through the series and see that they are reading more difficult books.
The books in each set are divided by color into three sub-groups. Each sub-group of booklets has a different color on the cover. This color is also the only color that is splashed into John Maslen's simple black and while drawings. For example, the first four books are red, and Mat's pants are red and white checkered. At first glance, the sub-groups don't seem to have much purpose other than color variety, but after reading through these books with my kindergartner, I've noticed that she feels a major sense of accomplishment when she graduates from one color of book to the next.
How we use BOB Books
I started with my kindergartner very simply, with book 1. This is the first phonics reader I've had in which she can sound out every single word just based on her basic letter sounds she's learned in school. Most of the Scholastic readers I've used require a basic knowledge of certain words to make it through the first page, but not BOB. Before bed, my daughter reads her BOB books to me, as far as she can get before exhaustion (which is usually not more than three books). When she can completely read through the book with no mistakes on the first try, we put it back in the box, and she doesn't have to read that one during our sessions anymore.
We started on Set 1 two months ago and are now on books 8 and 9 (my daughter is really having trouble with the short "u" sound). With the holidays, we've taken some breaks, so I imagine that if we had been consistently reading every day, she would be starting "the orange box" (Set 2) by now.
Overall Recommendation
I am a huge fan of BOB Books. If anything, I feel like I failed my older daughter by not getting these when she was starting out reading. She has a hard time sounding out words, and I think the BOB Books would have helped her a lot. My five year old is thriving with the BOB Books and got very excited to find Set 2 in her stocking on Christmas morning. I highly recommend this series for teaching kids to read once they know their basic letter sounds.
