The books as the ‘Readers’ Series which I borrowed from a local library near my house were the Magic Tree House: Vacation Under the Volcano #13 (Mary Pope Osborne, 1998), Tonight on the Titanic #17 (Mary Pope Osborne, 1999), and Thanksgiving on Thursday #27 (Mary Pope Osborne, 2002), all is published by Random House, Inc. Each of books usually has 10 episodes and is made up of 70 something pages. These books are called paperbacks, not hardcovers. The cover of each book is illustrated on the main scene, which can express the theme or the main situation. Last year, when I got the letter from my American friend, one of his daughters, who turned to be 3rd grade, was into reading these books. So as nonnative speakers, the readers might usually be 5th or 6th grade students, young learners who are eager to read a lot. Or they might be late learners such as middle school students. When I open the first page, on the left side, it shows various front pictures of this series. And next page introduces comments from young readers, teachers, and parents, those who are fans of this series. For example, I love your books so much that I could read them with my eyes closed. —Gabriel R., As a parent, I thank you for writing stories filled with adventures, fun, and valuable lessons. —M. Nagao. And the next page, it describes where the author, Mary Pope Osborne, got motivation from and how she collected information and data to write this book about. As a reader, I think, there are a lot of interests in it before starting to read. Plus, as always, main characters, eight-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister, Annie, who live in Pennsylvania, appear. This means that every reader can be a main character, if he/she is about to read a book. In addition, the appeared mysterious tree house with books in the woods is the starting and ending point for the adventure related to past events. While two characters were sent to one place to have them worked out the mission given to them at the beginning, no time at all passes in the present time. Besides the tree house belongs to Morgan le Fay, a magical librarian of Camelot during the King Arthur. She could travel through time and space, gathering books. This imaginary person encourages readers to read a book. While two of them are sent to one place, they are able to experience something special, but the contemporary can’t experience. This part is resulted from the author’s wits and intelligences, that is, how important the information of the event such as Thanksgiving, Titanic, and The Volcano in Pompeii is and how the author organize the story with imagination, fun, interest, and logic. With the help of these, readers can get information easily and feel fun and be moved from time to time. First of all, the described words, sentences or situations are not too difficult. In the end, nonnative speakers, especially young readers can figure out the story with comparative ease. This makes them read more and more. But there is one precondition to obtain this: The reader should be ready to read a book for a certain time. Anyway to come back to the series again, at the end of this book, more facts about the event for the readers are introduced. These all elements are absolutely good factors to study especially social study or science for young readers. Besides, some illustrations sometimes shown encourage the readers to read as well. I sometimes recommend adult learners including me to read children books in English as many as possible if they want to improve their English ability too. Of course, as I mentioned above, because the description is not too difficult, it seems childish. But to think of the basic reason why we learn English, I think extensive reading is really great idea for learners. I know spoken language is different from written language. But if we want to improve our vocabulary or phrases with fun, I prefer extensive reading. As we know, there is plenty of repetition in extensive reading. That’s why here in Korea, especially for young kids or young learners, their English teachers use the story telling as one of the strategies in teaching English. Just because grammar, words, and useful expressions are in it, which means learners can acquire them easily. As Dr. LeeEunmee quoted the Dr. Seuss’ “Enjoy your days”: The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. extensive reading is in the same vein, I guess.
Ms. Kang
I am sorry to tell you this, but it was really hard for me to read and follow your streams of consciousness...You wrote your essay within 'one' block paragraph, and I failed checking out your main points and claims although your discussions were analytic and thoughtful. :-)
Thank you for your review, but I am looking forward to seeing your reviews and essays written in a series of 'paragraphs' in the future.
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