Read at Home

View other editions of Read at Home.
View books by Cynthia Rider, Alex Brychta.

Great for any child learning to read - Rated
This review applies to all of the Oxford Reading Tree Read at Home series.

I bought a couple of the level 4 books for my 6 year old reluctant reader in September. At the same time I bought this book for my 4 year old, who had only just started school and hadn't yet started reading at school. I now (less than two months later) have all of levels 1 to 4, (15 books in total) and I do not resent the money I have spent on them. We are eagerly awaiting the publication of level 5 in January.

At £2.99 each the books are really good value. They are lovely little hardback books containing funny stories which the child can read by looking at the pictures. The pictures are clear and have lots of things going on in the background, which are fun to spot.

Each book also has things to spot on each or most of the pages, e.g. find the caterpillar in every picture; or for level 4, they spot letters hidden in the picture, which spell out a word.

In addition to this, at the end of each book there is a little puzzle, such as a maze, spot the difference, match the rhyming words, find items in a picture beginning with a certain letter, etc.

The back cover of each book tells you what level of child they are suitable for, e.g. can they recognise their name, do they know some letter sounds?

There is also a very good parent's guide in the same format.

I found it very hard when my first child was learning to read, to find very simple books to buy or borrow from the library. This series fills that gap.