Tree Tops All Stars/Chapter Books

[Bonsoir]

I hear from other parents at school that my DD will be expected to read these next year. Could anyone tell me what they think of them?

[mrz]

I've just ordered some for my class as they look good for able readers. When they arrive I will give you a more informed opinion.

[Bonsoir]

Great, thank you very much mrz. When you say "able readers" what book band (for want of any other measure of reading ability) would you be thinking of?

[mrz]

they start at gold but with age appropriate content

[Bonsoir]

Ah I see.

Which doesn't explain why DD's school uses them, since none of the children are especially able readers in English...

DD is currently working her way through the Usborne Young Reading Series One which look to my unprofessional eyes quite similar in difficulty to a purple or gold book band, but could you confirm?

[lovecheese]

My DD has brought a few of these home, OP, and she has had them in guided reading (I think). She enjoyed them - as far as you can enjoy a higher level scheme book anyway.

[mrz]

The blurb in the catalogue says
Engaging chapter books for your able infants to enjoy - High-quality, exciting fiction to challenge your gifted and talented readers (their bold). Age appropriate content and levelling you can trust.
The rep only had a couple of examples but the stories looked interesting.

[mrz]

Just from memory they look similar in difficulty to series 3 of the Usbourne

[Bonsoir]

Thank you!

[mrsgboring]

Bonsoir do you have the book band list for Usborne? It's a PDF linked at the bottom of this website

www.usborne.com/catalogue/usborne-reading-programme.aspx?cat=1&area=yr

[mrsgboring]

DS1's current reading book, it turns out is one of these now I check! It's marked up by school as white band (though these aren't always reliable). We have Ronald the Tough Sheep and I've no idea where it comes in the scheme - it says it's in "pack 3" but I don't know if that's a level description or just a purchasing bundle.

It's a nice story, well put together and totally age-appropriate. I would say its content is pretty challenging for DS in terms of idiomatic phrases and little jokes (for example when the sheep are rescued they say "You've saved our wool" - DS didn't know the expression "saved our bacon" so that extended him a little)

They aren't as colourful as the Usborne Young Reading, which, for all their faults, DS and I prefer.

[Bonsoir]

mrsgboring - thank you very much for that link - I hadn't come across the Usborne book band list and that is very useful. And interesting, too, that you and your DS prefer the Usborne Young Reading to the Tree Tops All Star.

What faults do you find with the Usborne? Do you have any other recommendations?

[mrz]

Pack 3 is Lime banding

[blackeyedsusan]

i would be interested to find out more about tree tops... need something challenging but suitable for a very sensitive soon to be 5 at about gold/white band. we get usborne books from the library and have animal crackers and walker stories ready to move on to, but want some more breadth and variety.

[mrz]

www.oup.com/oxed/primary/oxfordreadingtree/resources/allstars/

[mrz]

www.oup.com/oxed/primary/oxfordreadingtree/resources/allstars/

[lifeissobusy]

The book people have a set of 20 Tree top books for £15

Sorry cannot get the link to work but if you search for TTOP it will come up

[mrsgboring]

The Usbornes I have found are slightly hastily edited on occasion - The Railway Children has two different spellings of Bobbie in, different chapters and another book we had had (can't remember which) had a word missing out of a sentence which made it completely nonsensical. I personally have an aversion to silly bits of dialogue in speech bubbles that fall out of sequence from the main text, but that is just a small squabble and not limited to Usborne of course.

Mrz, thanks for the banding info. I thought it seemed more difficult (or mostly longer) than some of the books we've had - we've had several books I thought were lime, none of which were marked that way from school.

[mrz]

From my brief inspection of the All Stars the main difference in levels was length

[dragonmother]

The All Stars books were great for ds as he was reading a couple of years ahead of his age and some of the other books at that level were not really age appropriate for him.
So they'd be about topics he really had no experience of at all which made comprehending the story hard. The All Stars were our favourites at that stage.

[mrz]

I've received my first batch of All Stars and they look good. The children have been very interested in taking some home and report the stories are fun.

[Bonsoir]

Thank you mrz.

[mrz]

The children say they find the stories funny/interesting. The books are "good" and they like the length and the colourful illustrations.
I think the stories are appropriate in content for younger children while being fairly challenging for the stronger readers.

[Bonsoir]

I'll let you know how DD gets on with them in due course! Thanks again!

[Bonsoir]

I'm reviving this thread as DD brought home one of the Tree Tops All Stars books for the first time today. It is called Squirrel and, according to the ORT list of Individual Titles matched to Book Band, is level 9/Gold. Which is all very well, but DD has been bringing home Usborne Young Reading Series 2 in level 11/Lime for the past month and is happily reading Matilda to herself in bed at night. Grrrrrr. This is either a sign of school's incompetence (probable) or lack of reading resources (highly probable).

[mrz]

Could it be they have just given her a reception book ... appropriate content but not correct level of difficulty