If, like me, you have a young child who is bored of school reading books, you’ll know it’s not always easy to find alternatives that match their reading ability. You might find, however, that a new range of Early Readers, published by Maverick Arts Publishing, solves your problems! Maverick have taken fun, interesting picture books and adapted them so that children can make the transition from listener to reader; more importantly, they have aligned the books to the Institute of Education’s book banded system, so that you can always find stories that are perfectly suited to your child’s current reading level.
My son is notoriously picky when it comes to reading books. He is not at all interested in Biff, Chip and Kipper – in fact, they are responsible for him perfecting his (rather impressive) eye-roll! He wants stories that make him laugh, capture his imagination and have proper storylines, rather than texts that are built around various phonic sounds. He also wants full-colour, interesting illustrations as he really enjoys looking at the pictures before he reads the words on the page. These Maverick Early Readers tick all the boxes. If I put a school reader and a Maverick Early Reader in front of him, he will always pick the Early Reader first and immediately crack on with reading it enthusiastically, whereas school books very seldom hold his attention and I have to continually encourage him to read (which is like pulling teeth at times). My son also loves the quiz at the end of each book, which is great for checking understanding. I can say, hand on heart, that they have made a huge difference to his love of reading (and my stress levels…) and have been worth every penny.
Maverick adds to its Early Reader collection on a pretty regular basis – I believe that they now have around 60 in the range – so you should be able to find a story that will appeal to your new reader. Up until recently I have bought them new on Amazon (as I don’t have a bookshop nearby due to living out in the sticks…), but I have just discovered a book seller – Readers That Care – who sells second-hand Maverick Early Readers through AbeBooks.co.uk: I received my first 3 today and they are in mint condition, in fact you would never know that they were ‘used’. I will definitely buy from them again as it means I can get great books at a cheaper price!
I hope you find these books as useful as we do – drop us a comment and let us know what you think.
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