Ready to Read
The Queen of Spain by Alan Bagnall
Grandpa dozes on the verandah, dreaming of being out at sea. Meanwhile, the children, mucking about on the lawn in his boat, travel to Spain and home again. This charming story of fantasy play is supported with beautiful illustrations by Freya Blackwood. The text provides opportunities for readers to make connections between their worlds and that of the story, to visualise, and to make inferences.
Suitable for guided reading at the Turquoise level.
Distribution
Copies were distributed in March to schools with junior classes on the basis of roll size. Item 31299.
Bikes by Janice Marriott
This non-fiction text introduces readers to practical information about bikes, how they work, and how to look after them. The book includes a contents page, an index, bullet points, and diagrams. Adrian Heke's detailed photographs illustrate the information. This text encourages readers to identify the author's purpose, to identify main ideas, and to evaluate ideas and information.
Suitable for guided reading at the Turquoise level.
Distribution
Copies were distributed in March to schools with junior classes on the basis of roll size. Item 31300.
Finding Tibs by Sian Burling-Claridge
Zara and her mum are having breakfast one morning when they realise that Tibs (Zara's cat) hasn't had his dinner. Zara doesn't let her blindness stop her from solving the problem of the missing cat. The text and the carefully crafted illustrations support the comprehension strategies of asking questions, visualising, and inferring.
Suitable for guided reading at the Orange level.
Distribution
Copies were distributed in March to schools with junior classes on the basis of roll size. Item 31138.
Lāvalava by Lino Nelisi
Sofi and her family love wearing their lāvalava for different occasions. This story shows us how each member of Sofi's family uses their lāvalava. As well as making strong connections to Pasifika students and their experiences, this text will encourage children to share their own stories about their families and the clothes they wear. It's rich in text features (high-frequency words, Pasifika words such as 'lāvalava' and 'kilikiti', verbs, personal and possessive pronouns), and it also supports a wide range of comprehension strategies, including making connections, forming hypotheses, identifying and summarising main ideas, and identifying the author's purpose. This text will also be available as a big book in 2007.
Suitable for guided reading at the Red level.
Distribution
Copies were distributed in March to schools with junior classes on the basis of roll size. Item 31301.
Two new big books
T-shirts by Estelle Corney
The recently re-illustrated version of this favourite Ready to Read is now available as a big book. This lively, rhythmic, rhyming text describes the T-shirts that belong to various family members. It makes strong connections to children's own experiences and encourages repeated readings. It is particularly useful for reinforcing the use of pronouns.
Suitable for shared, joyful reading at all levels.
Distribution
Copies were distributed in March to schools with junior classes on the basis of roll size. Item 31275.
Note about public availability: Some copies of the original 1983 small-book version of T-shirts are still available, which schools may request for their students to take home and keep. Ready to Read books are not generally made available to the public because it's preferable for children to come 'fresh' to the books for instructional reading. However, T-shirts is a particularly effective book for sharing and rereading, so the Ministry of Education has approved this one-off distribution.
A Good Idea by Bill Nagelkerke
Publication as an enlarged version increases the ways that teachers can use this text to expand students' vocabulary, encourage fluent, expressive reading, and support the development of comprehension strategies. The humorous illustrations and visual language features add a delightful extra dimension to this engaging text.
Suitable for shared reading at the Blue level.
Distribution
Copies were distributed in March to schools with junior classes on the basis of roll size. Item 31379.
Change of publication date for teachers notes
The publication date for the revision of the Ready to Read emergent teacher support material has been changed, and it will now be available in term 3 of 2006. The original version of the material (first published in 2001) is available online in the Ready to Ready Teachers Notes site in the TKI Literacy and Numeracy community.