My son (6) likes reading, and he is good at it too. But he won’t admit it, and despite the fact that he spends most of his time with print in front of his nose (books, comics, magazines, Lego instructions, packaging – he keeps everything! –etc ) and requests going to bookshops as “treats”, he is still adamant that he finds reading boring and doesn’t want (I quote) “to read any book that is longer than 60 pages!”. As you can imagine, I am finding this a tad frustrating. I am no pushy mother but it is as if he is pre-programmed, as a boy, to dismiss reading as something to enjoy. Grrr!
Anyway, to the point! He and I have found a good compromise: the Happy Families series. I think they are fantastic, and he thinks they are great and short so he reads one a night to himself, once we have done stories.
Based on the “Happy Families” card series, the books are all written by Allan Ahlberg but illustrated by different people, including Janet Alhberg, André Amstutz, Colin McNaughton, Emma Chichester Clark and many more.
The books are great as first readers, but they are also perfect for reading out loud for preschoolers. They might look old-fashioned to many (I think many of the books were originally published in the 1980s) but I don’t think they have lost any of their appeal!
Favourites includes Master Bun the Baker’s Son, Ms Cliff the Climber and Mrs Jolly’s Joke Shop.
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