Book Tuesday: Bob Books

I was trying to think of a great book to talk about for today's post, so I was looking through some of the library books my daughter checked out to read. As I did this, it occurred to me that my daughter is reading pretty well for 5, and one of the reasons for that is a great series of early readers called Bob Books.

So, for my book of the day, I'm going to introduce you to (or reacquaint you with) the Bob Books. These are the earliest of early readers and are perfect for kick-starting your kids' early reading.

Written by Bobby Lynn Maslen, the books are simple easy readers that have words kids can entirely sound out. No sight words are necessary to master the most basic books. So, they give your kids a real since of accomplishment in having read a book.

For example, book one is called Mat. Page one says "Mat." Page two says, "Mat sat." Sam is in the book and at some point Mat or Sam sits on the other.

If you've never heard of the Bob books and think your child might be interested/ready for reading, definitely check them out. I will offer one tip though. DON'T BUY THEM AT THE BOOKSTORE. They're generally more expensive there. I've found you can get pretty good discounts at Amazon.com (the set is $10 instead of $16.99).  There are 5 boxed sets of Bob Books (designed for beginning readers), so if you can save $7 per set, do it.

If you're really lucky, you'll be able to find Bob books at Costco. The store and the publisher struck some deal and they occasionally do a large version of them for exclusive sale at Costco. What's even better is the Costco version breaks up the books into 3 sets.  When my son was first reading, I ended up buying the third set at Costco for $10. So, it's a real deal. Unfortunately, Costco only sells them once a year, and if it's not that time of year, you're just outta luck.

You can find more about Bob Books here: http://www.bobbooks.com.


-Hyattsville Mom