Christmas

April 1, 2013

PreS-Gr1-The large font and many clear, cheery, color photographs featuring children and their families make this set visually appealing for beginning readers. The simple sentences and bold keywords assist students with comprehension. Substantial white space keeps the focus on the texts. "Words to Know" sections have thumbnail photos above highlighted words, but no definitions; many readers may not fully grasp their meanings. It is also unfortunate that the attractive photos do not always correspond to the text. For example, in Halloween, the sentence "Pumpkins grow on vines." is paired with an image of a carved jack-o-lantern, and in Hanukkah, readers learn that when playing dreidel "You can win gelt," but no chocolate coins are shown. In addition, some sentences will leave readers wanting more information. This is not a strong series for reports, but rather an additional purchase where early-readers collections have gaps in the holiday collections.

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