Learning to read with Books 2 Door UK | Review

Throughout 2019, conquering Annabelle’s ability to read is something on the top of the list. Firstly, we built her a book nook which quite literally made her excited to read. The first hurdle conquered! Secondly, we were approached by the lovely people at Books2DoorUK to see if we would like to review a selection of books. I mean, the timing could not have been better, right?

With Annabelle being our key focus, I shopped purely for her. Both Ellie & Jacob have their own selection of novels that they are working through, so I knew they wouldn’t mind. However, finding the right books for Annabelle – for me – was a hard decision because her reading isn’t brilliant. However, if I’m honest? I think she can read better than she lets on nine-tenths of the time! Does your child do that? Act the silly beggar? Because I really think it depends on their mood whether they can be bothered to make the effort or not. 

Anyway…

Choosing a series of books that would suit Annabelle’s current reading ability and something that would also provide a steady progression – was my goal! I came across the Songbirds Phonics collections – which contains 36 books that go from stage 1 through 6 – which looked great. Then I came across the My First Reading series – 30 Banana book collection, which sounds perfect for Annabelle, too. 

The Songbirds Phonics collection is written by Julia Donaldson, the author of much-loved books such as The Gruffalo & The Everywhere Bear. This was my first plus because I knew the books themselves would be bright & engaging. I wasn’t wrong. As I mentioned earlier in the post, this collection of books comes in stages one through six. Stage one being aimed at beginner readers and you can go up a stage as your reading progresses.

Each stage of books consists of different phonics levels. Starting with the sounds m, c, t, p, a, & o then going into the ‘ch, sh, th & wh’ sounds and so on. It is an amazing set of books that Annabelle is really enjoying. Whereas I am enjoying them because they are helping my daughters reading confidence grow & grow! 

After building Annabelle a pretty epic book nook {if I don’t say so myself} we started our evening storytime routine. In style! We would read a few pages of a book to her {which is currently the Secret in Vault 13 – a Doctor Who novel} and then she’d read a book to us. It’s a lovely combination and it’s not only her Dad & I that read to her. Oh no! Her other siblings are getting in on the fun, too. Which is so lovely! 

We started her on the Songbirds Phonics collection and after one week reading Stage one – which in my opinion aimed at Primary One children – she moved up to Stage two. Stage two is her jam – it has the perfect amount of words on each page and enough pages to extend her attention span to see it through. She, of course, has her favourites but listening to her reading, like actually reading, with minimal help is incredible. 

Basically, my point is, if you have a little one who is about to embark on their reading journey – then I cannot recommend these books enough. They have been really great stepping stones to get Annabelle engaged in reading. I love how they are progressing her, without her really noticing – which I think is really clever. The Songbirds Phonics collection RRP £29.99 which I think is an absolute bargain. Especially for 36 books! 

As for the Banana book collection, I cannot comment on those yet. Annabelle isn’t quite at that stage in my opinion but I am hoping to start her on those after the Easter half term or maybe even over the Summer holidays. I haven’t quite decided yet. I guess I will see how long it takes her to conquer stage 6 of the Songbirds collection.

There is no rushing her or pressure. We are going at her pace. Combining that with going over each of the six books within each stage several times before moving onto the next stage of books. 

This collection goes in stages too; red, blue & green bananas – which I think is quite cute. I’m sure the kids think so, too! 

There are so many lovely titles in this collection and the difference from this collection is that the words in the books are a lot smaller. As well as there being lots more words on the pages – so they’re like proper little novels. 

So, that’s how we are tackling Annabelle’s reading skills right now – it’s safe to say that we are all loving it. I especially love how the older kids are getting involved with her storytime as well and I’d be lying if I didn’t love the ambience of her book nook myself. There is just something about sitting in a fort style nook with a sprinkling of fairy lights above your head. 

Do you have a little one learning to read? What are they reading? 

If you liked this post, then you might enjoy my Free Reading Journal Printable post. 

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Disclosure: Both of these book collections were kindly sent out to me from Books2DoorUK in return for an honest blog review. All thoughts, photos & opinions are entirely my own