Learning to read is one of the most important milestones in a child’s life, and at times it can be quite a challenge – although a very rewarding one. While it is serious business, it doesn’t need to be dull and boring. Some of the best early reading experiences are often the silliest. Choosing the right books is important, books that engage children, make them laugh, move, and interact. These kind of books not only help with building literacy skills but also create joyful memories that last a lifetime. For young readers just beginning their journey, stories that encourage participation and play can transform reading from a chore into a cherished activity. Which brings me to A Very Silly Reading Book by Alan Smith – a book that puts kids in charge, with hilarious results.
A child’s reading journey generally starts with bedtime stories, not them reading them themselves but being read them from a very young age. They then progress to reading those stories together, eventually reading to you, before finally reading independently. But reading isn’t just a bedtime activity, reading can be enjoyed at anytime, anywhere – it’s just trying to find reading material that your child will engage with and have fun reading.
When children are learning to read at school, some of the books used can be dry and boring, which can see some children disengage and have a very real danger of putting them off reading. When learning to read, reading should be fun from the very first page.
Alan Smith has produced a delightfully absurd picture book in A Very Silly Reading Book. It is more than just a tool for helping children learn to read – it puts on a performance with the kids in charge. It creates laugher on every page for the kids and their grown-up helpers.
With most children’s books the premise is simple, read to yourself or read it out loud. This book is very different – the child reads aloud and the adult helper must obey every silly instruction on the page, everything from clapping and hopping to meowing and tail-shaking. With the child reader controlling the actions, the adult helper becomes their personal puppet. Laugher guaranteed and total enjoyment of reading words from a book.
The book starts with the adult helper taking an “oath” which instructs them that they are now a cat and have to do EVERYTHING that the reader successfully reads from within the book.
With large, easy-to-read text, this reading book is perfect for early readers aged 4+. It start off simple with a nice easy sentence to read and easy actions for the adult to follow – “My helper will clap 3 times”. As a reward for reading out the sentence on their own the adult must clap 3 times. But it wouldn’t be a very silly reading book if it just involved a few hand claps.
As the reader progresses through the pages, the adult will also be asked to hop like a bunny, take a catnap, wake up, walk like a cat and even meow. But that’s not all – look out for the colour commands: whenever the word blue is mentioned, helpers must rub their nose. Don’t like blue? When yellow is spoken, meow like a cat. Green commands the adult to shake their tail. And just to prolong the silliness and embarrassment for the adult, when these command words combine the adult will need to do more than one action at a time. It’s a fun and clever way to reinforce word recognition and sequencing while keeping the energy high and the laughter flowing.
Overall, this is indeed a very silly book but lots of fun. By design it is meant to be a shared reading experience that is also a game, learning anything is much better when it’s fun and interactive. When the reading starts, the words flow and the laughter floods the room. A perfect book for early, emerging and reluctant readers.
How can any child resist a book where one page has the words blue, yellow, green, yellow (which are also highlighted in the correct colours)? Those words don’t mean much in themselves but if the child successfully reads them out loud then their adult helper must rub their nose, meow like a cat, shake their tail and meow again. Children will bellow with laughter that that can provoke these actions from their adult helper and will want to read more.
With laughter and silly actions, children are not just reading words and building word recognition, they are also having fun, spending quality time with their parents, carer, guardian or other special adult in their lives and they are also learning to love books and reading and hopefully will be more enthusiastic about picking up other books.
Personally, I love this book even if it is a very silly reading book. Although it doesn’t have any kind of story, it has a very simple concept and is excellent at encouraging children to read – getting kids just to pick up a book is half the battle won.
A Very Silly Reading Book is a fun and entertaining book that helps to boost children’s reading confidence while having lots of fun. A laugh-out-loud bonding experience. It’s ideal for home or classroom use, especially for children who need a little extra encouragement to pick up a book.
A simple silly concept that is lots of fun. The large print makes it very easy for children to focus on the words and read them, and the silly actions from their helpers helps them to engage with the text. An excellent book for helping children with their reading skills and one that puts them in charge.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £8.99 (Paperback) / £3.99 (Kindle)
Available to buy from Amazon here.
