Week 6: Readers, Ms. Hong EY (Excellent)

Extensive reading is a wonderful way of learning, a source of enjoyment, and a way of gaining knowledge of the word which is same as ‘catch two birds with one stone’ in the best scenario. As being shown in the Table 1-1., I reviewed ‘Step into Reading’ series books published by Random House. I first read three Step 1 books to see how an author wrote a book for a child who knows the alphabet and is willing to start reading a book. I was really curious about the length of a book, choice of the words, design, technique of creating a story with limited vocabulary and the number of words. I was wondering how accessible the book would be to a learner with a limited vocabulary. After reviewing the books, I found out that because of what I was concerning, the author had to create a new story with the characters in the original story (Finding Nemo), to shorten the original story while organizing by numbers (Cinderella), or to focus on introducing main characters and omit the main story which is familiar with people; the story about Snow White’s step-mother and her prince was mentioned in the book (Snow White). All three books are based on famous, familiar, and interesting stories.

Table 1 – 1.   Review on Same Step Books (Step 1)

Title	Just Keep Swimming (Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo)	Cinderella’s Countdown to the Ball	Friends for a Princess (Disney Princess)
Author	RH Disney	RH Disney and Heidi Kilgras	RH Disney and Melissa Lagonegro
Illustrator	Atelier Philippe Harchy	Atelier Philippe Harchy	Atelier Philippe Harchy
Publisher	Random House	Random House	Random House
Publishing Date	April 26, 2005	January 22, 2002	January 27, 2004
ISBN	978-0-7364-2319-9 (0-7364-2319-2)	978-0-7364-1225-4 (0-7364-1225-5)	978-0-7364-2208-6 (0-7364-2208-0)
Themes	Self-Esteem, Media, Animals	Media, Math, Concepts/Counting, Classics	Rhyme & Alliteration, Friendship, Fairy Tales & Fables, Classics
The Number of Pages	34 Pages	32 Pages	32 Pages
Book Format	Big type and easy words Rhyme and Rhythm Pictures clues	Big type and easy words Rhyme and Rhythm Pictures clues	Big type and easy words Rhyme and Rhythm Pictures clues
Reading Level	Step1: Ready to Read Preschool~Kindergarten ; for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading	Step1: Ready to Read Preschool~Kindergarten ; for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading	Step1: Ready to Read Preschool~Kindergarten ; for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading
Dates Reviewed	September 23, 2010	September 23, 2010	September 23, 2010

Table 1 – 2.  Texts of the Step 1 books (The lines divided by the page of the book)

	Text
Just Keep Swimming (Disney/Pixar Finding Nemo)	Nemo has a dream. He wants to join the school swim team. But Nemo has a little fin. He thinks that he will never win. Dory helps Nemo. She teaches him to go, go, go! Nemo races and races. Nemo chases and chases. “Just keep swimming,” Dory sings. But Nemo thinks of other things. “I will never win. I have a bad fin.” “Just Keep swimming!” Dory cries. So Nemo tries… and tries… And tries… Nemo races and races. Nemo chases and chases. Yippee! Yahoo! His dream comes true. Nemo makes the team. Can Nemo win the first-place prize? “Just Keep swimming!” Dory cries. Watch him race. Watch him chases. Watch as Nemo wins first place!
Cinderella's Countdown to the Ball	Poor Cinderella. Poof! A fairy godmother. One magic coach. Two coachmen. Three wishes come true! Four horses. Five miles to the ball. Six royal doormen. Seven men want to dance. Eight ladies wait in line. The price! They meet. They dance. Nine ladies whisper. Ten fingers touch. Eleven stars twinkle. The clock chimes twelve times! Run, Cinderella! One glass slipper. Tap, tap. Too small. Crash! The other slipper! It fits! Happily ever after! The end.
Friends for a Princess (Disney Princess)	Snow White has seven little friends. Loving, kind, and special friends. Some have big beards. Some have small. Dopey has no beard at all. Doc is caring. Doc is wise. Doc needs glasses for his eyes. Happy is the cheerful guy. Bashful is so very shy. Sneezy always has to sneeze. Grumpy is so hard to please. Sleepy likes to take a nap. Dopey wears a purple cap. All the dwarfs work in a mine. Then they march home in a line. Snow White is there when they come back. She welcomes them and makes a snack. The jolly friends dance through the night. The seven Dwarfs love sweet Snow White.

 

On the other hand, according to the transcribed texts in Table 1-2., Step 1 books does not include more than two sentence on one page and the font size is big enough to be read by children in preschool or kindergarten.

As shown below in Table 2, ‘Toy Story’ Step 1 and Step 2 book were compared since the books are supposed to be differentiated by level even if they are based on the same story. Step 1 book of ‘Toy Story’ includes 53 words which are words or short sentences such as “Want to play?” and “Me, too.” However, Step 2 of ‘Toy Story’ contains 123 words which are full longer sentences than Step 1 book although they are still short sentences. The readers could read the book without reading all simple words which make rhythm and rhyme; the words are key point words but I would say that they are not necessary to understand the story because illustration really helps what is happening in the book and giving clues for understanding. On the other hand, Step 2 has a simple story line.

 

 

You specification table clearly shows how you analyzed these books.  You added your findings and opinions in addition to the table, which made this review more comprehensive. Thank you for your good work.

 

 p.s. Oh, I couldn't edit the images that were included in your review.