My six-year-old, THE BOSS has just found her reading rhythm. She’s always been bonkers about books, with an eight-picture-book-a-night habit, but when it came to striking-out as an independent reader, she was a bit. . . reluctant. A little like the goldilocks of the chapter book world, the books offered at school were too dull, too wordy or too zzzzzzzzz.
But then during lockdown, THE BOSS got her hands on Bloomsbury Young Readers and suddenly, her reading took off. These are proper stories that are a manageable step up from picture books, while keeping all the colour and fun.
In a fortnight THE BOSS has read:
Elvis the Squirrel by Tony Bradman and Ashley King
Alice Goes to Hollywood by Karen Wallace and Katy Halford
Eye, Eye, Captain by Jane Clarke and Jennie Poh
Sports Day by Jane Lawes and Sarah Jennings
THE BOSS says: “At first I felt a bit nervous – I can’t do this. What happens if I get all the words wrong? But then I read one whole page on my own and went. . . ‘Hey I CAN do this!’ Some nights I even read more than one chapter!”
THE BOSS says the Bloomsbury Readers have “brilliant pictures and a bit less writing on every page than a big book. The words were just right for me.”
“Compared to the books at school, these are so much more exciting and definitely not boring. I don’t feel like I want to doze off to sleep. Instead, I don’t want them to end.”
THE BOSS hasn’t looked back. She goes to bed every night with the flashlight, confident she can read on her own. She’s read almost 10 books in the space of three months – the latest a young middle grade novel. But it all started from a fun, confident-building foundation with the Bloomsbury young readers. Highly recommend.
