As a new blogger, I have been learning how to conduct reviews. A friend and a fellow blogger, The Mommies Review loaned me her book called, Y by Larry Baum and Joanna Pasek for me to review. The thoughts inside of this review are my own.
When my youngest
daughter had her baby shower this last January, she asked everyone who came to
bring a book for the baby's library she wanted to make for him. Her request was
a huge success and Baby Hays received many wonderful books.
I had mentioned this to
my fellow blogger friend and she indicated she had several children's books I
could review.
The inside page of this book states this: The first step in learning to read is a big one; from single letters to whole words. That's a lot to ask of young children. To make the transition to reading as simple and easy as possible, why not use the shortest words possible, at least in the very first books that children read? How short can words be and still make a story? Three letters, two letters, one letter? The Bo books use very short words to tell very simple stories, with characters, action, and humor, to help young children cross the threshold into the world of reading. You can read them for free as e-books or buy the paper books for close to their cost, with any author's profit donated to UNICEF.
Y compels the person to imagine you are learning to read a new language. How would you do it? First, you will learn the alphabet if it has one. Then you would string letters into simple words and read stories to get familiar with the words and how they are used. That might seem a bit hard, wouldn't you agree?
It would be even harder if you have never learned a language before. And what if you were only a little kid? That would be a big challenge. But—think about it—that is what we expect children to do routinely to learn reading.
What if we could help the kids by making books easier to read? Would it seem that the children are lazy for not learning to read or would it be considered a challenge for them?
I know for myself; I wanted my kids to learn to read and write properly in the beginning. I wanted them to enjoy reading and writing- so I taught them to read and encouraged them when homework was assigned that included reading. Did they like it? Sometimes and at other times, not so much. But they read...and they learned to write.
Y takes this concept and makes it easy for kids to read. Do you remember a time when your child was trying to pronounce a large word like, "xylophone'? Do you remember how you taught them to say it correctly? The first thing that comes to mind for me is breaking it down into syllables. XY LUH FOHN (even at that, it is misspelled). I can see my kids getting frustrated as I write this review. Therefore, the authors' Larry Baum and Joanna Pasek use Capital Letters and single letters to teach the kids how to read.
For instance, the word, "YOU" would be seen in the book as U. I have a problem with the way these books are written to teach our kids. I feel like they need to learn the proper word spelling to learn how to write it properly. I would be concerned when they are writing papers as they grow older, that "YOU" would be spelled, U. Am I wrong in my thinking?
The pages in the book allow the reader(s) to come up with their own story as they look at each page. There are no letters or words. The pictures are clean and crisp. There is one page with the father figure and the little girl who is pointing up to the sky indicating Y? I studied this page for a few minutes as I was wondering what the Y represented. I looked back through the previous pages to see if I could figure it out.
The first few pages showed the father figure, the little girl, butterflies on the pages along with a Bee buzzing by. Then you have the pages with the little girl asking Y?
I continued to look at the next few pages. Still in the back of my head, I am thinking if I were reading this book to my grandson, I would be making the story up as we turned the pages...
The Father figure looks perplexed, the little girl is standing there staring at this man. I continue turning pages...they both are looking towards the ground with dismayed looks. The little girl begins to crouch down as though she is looking for something on the ground...
The Father figure is sitting on the ground and the little girl is standing up and bent over pointing to the ground, Y?
Father figure shrugs his shoulders and puts out his hands as if he were saying, "I don't know". A few more pages and there are beautiful flowers on the ground. They both are looking at them. Y? says the little girl.
Flipping through more of the pages, the Father figure looks frustrated and the little girl is smiling. There is a Bee close to the flower. I C A B!
The Father figure and the little girl are ecstatic they have seen a bee on the flower. End of the book.
You tell me, I C A B? or would you rather them read, I see a bee? I get the Y? The little girl was asking "why". This book reminds me of shorthand I took in school with short letters that represented a full word or phrase. Maybe to some, this type of reading is okay, but I would prefer my grandson to learn the proper spelling of the words in the beginning.
I am going to give this book a 3 rating out of 5. I feel this would be confusing to kids when it comes time for them to read the proper word and then try to write it.
In the meantime, I am going to order a copy of this book for my daughter to review. I would like to hear her thoughts for her son. I will give an update at a later time.
What do you think? C U L8ter - get it? (See you later)!
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