Early Years Reading: Francesca Simon’s ‘Horrid Henry’ series
The ‘Horrid Henry’ series, written by Francesca Simon and illustrated by Tony Ross, is one of the UK’s bestselling series for 5-8 year olds. Over 5.5 million books have been sold to date and Henry, for all that he is unbelievably cheeky, totally naughty and utterly horrid, has been attributed with converting the most reluctant readers into enthusiastic ones. Janet Evans explains his appeal.
MORE »Early Years Reading: Anna Wilson’s ‘Nina Fairy Ballerina’ series
One of the most critical turning points in children’s reading lives comes when they are ready to make the all important move to longer stretches of text than those found in their early reading books. Before this point carefully selected picture books, whether they have been drawn from reading schemes or not, build up reading stamina to the point where children are ready to move to the more sustained challenge of extended texts. These first extended texts – often called ‘chapter books’ by children – have to be very special if they are to successfully scaffold the young reader’s efforts. Alison Kelly assesses the appeal of a new series of full text stories, ‘Nina Fairy Ballerina’.
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