Children love to learn to read with Ted and his friends. My own daughter was raised as a reader with these fun, friendly characters illustrated by Stephen Cartwright.
Usborne Books just released an updated version of it's compilation of phonics readers, better known as Ted and Friends. This latest version includes ALL phonics readers published by Usborne Books, and it also includes a delightful CD that reads each story to your up and coming reader.
When this book first arrived at our house, my daughter recognized the name of the book and oohed and awed over it. She was thrilled to see that all the titles were included and insisted on listening to the CD. Each individual title is read on the CD by a women with an english accent. The sound effects, especially the animals' sounds, round out the CD and makes it so much fun to listen to. After listening to the entire CD while reading along with the book, my daughter declared this "the best of all the Usborne Books".
Titles included are Fat Cat on a Mat, Ted in a Red Bed, Goose on the Loose, Big Pig on a Dig, Shark in the Park, Toad Makes a Road, Mouse Moves House, Hen's New Pens, Sam Sheep Can't Sleep, and Ted's Shed. Usborne's famous Cartwright Duck to find is also on every page. I'm not so sure anyone ever grows out of finding that duck!
Purchase
The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales is a must have for any child who is just about ready to start reading. Actually it's a great book for those who are younger to have read to them, and for those kids are early readers.
This book is great! It's a dual reader - which means it has easy text on the top of the page and a little bit harder text on the bottom of the page. That way, when Mary is starting to read, she can read the easy text at the top, and as her reading ability progresses she can start reading the text on the bottom too. This works great when you have two kids with two different reading levels. One can read the top portion, and the other the bottom portion. Another neat thing about the duel reading is that you can follow the story line whether you read just the top text or just the bottom text or both. Also, it's nice for mom and dad too - they can read the shorter version or the longer version based on how exhausted mom or dad is.
A CD is also included. The CD reads the stories to your child. I know my daughter loves to sit in bed at night after our own story time and have the CD read the stories to her. I think this really helped her when she was first starting to learn to read too. She also likes to bring the CD along in the car just to listen to the stories.
There are 20 stories in the Farmyard Tales Series. Each is included in this book. And each story starts the exact same way: "This is Apple Tree Farm . . . ". Repetitive text helps kids start to learn the words to the first page of each story pretty quickly.
Find the duck! Kids love to look for the duck that is on every single page of this book. Illustrated by Steven Cartwright, he hid a tiny little duck on each page of his books for the kids to find. This activity is great, and the kids just squeal when they find that duck!
As mentioned above, there are 20 Farmyard Tales stories in this combined volume book. Individually, each Farmyard Tale book is 6.95. The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales is only 24.99 so that saves you $94.00. That's a HUGE savings! Plus, this is a book that your kids will want to keep to pass on down to their own children.
Happy Reading and Happy Duck Hunting!
Animal Hide and Seek is a duel delight for children 9 months and up. Adults will have fun spending time with their little one as he/she discovers the textures and hidden pictures behind the flaps on each page. They also get to play a simple game of hide and seek and a simple counting game is included.
Another neat thing about Animal Hide and Seek is that it is part of Usborne's Farmyard Tale Series. It includes all the Farmyard Tale characters such as Poppy, Sam, Curly and Woolly . As with any Farmyard Tale book illustrated by Stephen Cartwright, there is a little yellow duck to find on each page.
Kids love this book and will enjoy it for a very long time.
