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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Is it me or is this a really odd reading book to give to a reception child?

30 replies

muminthecity · 11/05/2011 17:39

DD brings home a reading book from school once or twice a week which she is supposed to read aloud to me and answer questions about. She is very good at it and is doing well, improving all the time. This week's book is a factual book about cars. It contains the words 'Ferrari' and 'Bugatti' several times, as well as a whole page about James Bond films, with details of ejector seats etc. Do most 5 year olds watch Bond films?! DD certainly doesn't! She did read the book quite well but found it difficult and I found it really hard trying to explain to her what it was all about.

I'm not going to do anything about it (apart from a brief note in her reading record to say she didn't enjoy the book) but I did find it very odd!

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vegasmum · 11/05/2011 17:45

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IndigoBell · 11/05/2011 17:51

Was it 'Cool Cars' - one of the free books MN has uploaded?

Not at all a silly book. It's full of lovely decodeable words....

It looks like a really great book. But not necessarily for your DD....

(My DD would love it though...)

mummytime · 11/05/2011 17:58

My kids have had similar books. I usually return them with a note about the unfamiliarity of the words. They maybe decodable, but are harder to decode if you've never come across the word before. As an occasional its not too bad, and I'd certainly comment if it happened more often (usually then because the child was "choosing" themselves and just grabbing the first book in the correct section).

Original poster

muminthecity · 11/05/2011 18:47

It was definitely a reading book, it's a Rigby Star one. Think it may be the one you are referring to, IndigoBell. It just doesn't seem to have much that a 5 year old could relate to in it, lots of information about different speeds, and the whole Bond thing seems odd for this age group too. Hey ho, hopefully the next one will be a bit more interesting/relevant!

OP posts:

megapixels · 11/05/2011 19:28

DD1 brought one like that in Year 1. It was about football. Most of it went over her head (and mine too, not knowing anythingmuch about football) and it was very hard work. I think they try to encourage reading different genres so throw in a few non-fictions from time to time. I put in a note to the teacher and there were no more of those.

megapixels · 11/05/2011 19:28

after that.

Elibean · 11/05/2011 19:36

Are the children involved in choosing their reading book, though? The kids at dd's school are, and in Reception (and Y1, for that matter) dd would sometimes pick books she thought she might like, or thought might be cool, which were wildly 'not her'!

messybessie · 12/05/2011 00:00

We've had that book. DS loved it and is very familiar with ferrari and bugatti as words (petrol head father). Perfectly relevant for his age.

I imagine DS would be equally perplexed by a book about ballet or music.

These kinds of books are far more useful at getting DS involved in reading than Floppy's bloody bath.

bruffin · 12/05/2011 07:33

That type of book would have been ideal for ds when he was 5, although he proabaly wouldn't have been quite up to reading it well until later, but the concept and idea would have been ideal.
DCs school had colour banded books which they could chose from, these were fact and fiction.
I know the school were really trying hard to find books that would interest the boys.

crazygracieuk · 12/05/2011 09:27

My child knows those brands as he watches Top Gear and is very interested in cars. He could read the names of car brands like Ford even when it was written in normal font and not the Ford car badge font long before he knew his alphabet.

Some information books are even more niche. I remember my daughter bringing home one about cricket and even I found it hard work.

Using James Bond to explain ejector seats is a bit strange. Personally I'd gone for a air force comparison.

AMumInScotland · 12/05/2011 09:51

Some boys are much more interested in non-fiction books than they are in stories, so schools try to have a range of different things. And they probably don't want to say to a girl "Oh you wouldn't like that one" because they don't want to be sexist and suggest that girls don't like cars/football/cricket

Saracen · 12/05/2011 16:39

I expect the idea is to engage kids who DO take a great interest in Bond and Ferarris, but don't take an interest in fiction. No harm in having a wide variety of reading books in order to try to hook as many kids as possible into reading.

lovecheese · 12/05/2011 16:53

Reminds me of a book that DD brought home at the start of year 1, a non-fiction book about famous and inspiring people; one of the people profiled was Natalie Du Toit (sp?) the swimmer who is an amputee. That took a lot of explaining as I remember...

barbie007 · 13/05/2011 14:31

Those words you mention are very easy to decode phonetically. Much easier than 'fairy or prince' !

ninani · 14/05/2011 11:29

My son loves cars and already has he already knew all these "supercars". But I also found it strange that they expected a 4-5 year old to know about James Bond. I just told him it was a fild hero and he liked the ejecting seat!

LawrieMarlow · 14/05/2011 11:35

Why did a book about a swimmer who is an amputee take a lot of explaining? I like it when DS and DD have non-fiction books as there is much more to talk about. Much more interesting than Bip, Kiff and Chipper anyway :)

Elk · 14/05/2011 11:45

dd2's current reading book is about 'Rice'. it is actually quite interesting but on the last page it asks the reader 'What is your favourite rice dish?' dd2 hates rice and screams if I put it on her plate!

Panzee · 14/05/2011 12:08

Sounds like it's been bought in to help older children who struggle with reading but understandably won't want "baby" books.

As to why your child might have it, in my class they get to pick what they like from the library, as long as it's the right colour band.

megapixels · 14/05/2011 12:46

DD1 got the amputee swimmer book too. I was quite apprehensive about how DD1 would react but she just read it matter of factly and looked very closely at the picture of the leg/stump etc. and that was that. I felt quite silly about it, I had thought she'd be upset and ask loads of difficult questions but it was just like any other information book for her so I now know not to overthink things .

gabid · 15/05/2011 10:01

DS had that book and I had similar thoughts - he didn't know any James Bond films and I wouldn't have thought they were suitable for a 5yo. He chose the book though as he was and is a reluctant reader. He soon remembered the names of the cars. We then found the car with the ejector seat from the film on YouTube which he watched over and over etc... It was the start of a facination with fast cars.

purepurple · 15/05/2011 10:06

If you are not happy with the book you can always ask for Biff, Chip and Kipper

gabid · 15/05/2011 10:23

There were other books DS didn't want to read (most of them actually), so I just got him a good selection of 'reading books' from the local library. And yes, he was fascinated by Biff, Chip and Kipper for a long while (they don't have them at his school). I explained in his reading log that he didn't like the book and listed all the books he did read each week.

After an initial 'he must read the books' attitude, the teacher was fine with that. DS is in Y1 and quite young I don't see why they have to read books they are not interested in at age 4/5.

I think it would be quite reasonable if you explained to the teacher that your DD is not interested in cars and whether you could swap the book.

Mum2be79 · 18/05/2011 22:50

It's a Rigby Star Phonics book. My school uses them. Brilliant for getting boys to read. Just because it's about cars, doesn't mean that it's not suitable. I'm sure lots of parents would probably think the same if their son brought home a book about fairies.

The focus is on blending sounds.

mycatoscar · 19/05/2011 05:59

sounds much better than the one we had the other day about a drunk horse!

Panzee · 19/05/2011 17:48

mycatoscar that sounds brilliant! :o What was it called?

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