Learning to Read – Maverick Early Readers Band 2

Maverick’s Early Readers have been beautifully designed to help support a young child on their early reading journey and five new Early Readers based on five of Maverick’s existing picture books have just been published. If you are looking for fun books for your children to practise their reading during the Easter break these little books are the perfect size to pack into a child’s bag and take on holiday.

The Early Readers have been edited by educational consultant, Catherine Baker, to fit into industry standard book bands, green being the easiest followed by orange and then turquoise. What I like about the books is that although a lot of thought has gone into making sure that they fit into the literacy curriculum they don’t have the look of a ‘reading book’ which can discourage some children from practising their reading. The stories are fun and original, the illustrations on the covers invite you to open the books and the text is printed in an easy to read black font on a white background.

There are multiple choice quizzes at the end of each book which consolidate a child’s understanding of what they have read as well as increase the enjoyment of the reading experience. You can also download a Learning Pack for each book on Maverick’s website. The Learning Packs include learning objectives, ideas for lessons and examples of language and linguistic features (e.g. alliteration, onomatopoeia, sight words and consonant clusters). There are also activity and colouring sheets to help extend children’s understanding of the text and stimulate further learning, the packs are a great resource for the classroom.

The stories in this Early Readers Band Two pack include Pirates Don’t Drive Diggers and A Gold Star For George which we love as picture books.

Green Band

I Wish I’d Been Born A Unicorn by Rachel Lyon and Andrea Ringli: Mucky the horse thinks that he would have more friends if he was a unicorn. Owl helps Mucky to look like a unicorn but when it rains Mucky’s costume is washed away and he discovers that the other animals like him just as he is.

Orange Band

Pirates Don’t Drive Diggers by Alex English and Duncan Beedie: Young Brad, a pirate, wants to work on a building site but is told that ‘Pirates Don’t Drive Diggers.’ Brad proves everybody wrong when he uses a digger to dig up Captain Blood’s treasure.

A Gold Star For George by Alice Hemming and Kimberley Scott: George is hoping to win a gold star and helps his friends with their efforts to win gold stars too. When George doesn’t win any stars his friends make him stars for being such a great friend.

Turquoise Band

Grumpy King Colin by Phill Alcock and Steve Stone: King Colin is extremely badly behaved and thinks that he can do what he likes because he’s the king. He ignores everybody shouting at him for doing things wrong but there is one person that he eventually listens to – his mother!

The Four Little Pigs by Kimara Nye and Marcin Bruchnalski: Tom’s Granny magics him into the story of The Three Little Pigs. Tom plays several tricks on the wolf so that the wolf can’t get into the pigs’ houses and finally the wolf gives up and goes to visit Red Riding Hood.

If you are a teacher or a school librarian I would definitely recommend adding Maverick’s Early Readers to your libraries. They are great books to help children consolidate and extend their reading skills.

Thank you to Maverick Books for sending us the Band Two Early Readers which can also be bought as a pack. My daughter couldn’t wait to read them once the parcel was opened, they have been a great support to her on her reading journey. As a bilingual reader she has benefited from the fact that some of the books are based on stories that she is already familiar with.