Learn to Read with Tug the Pup and Friends! Box Set 3 (My Very First I Can Read)

To present their excellent early reader books in an organized and graded way to young readers, the publisher has divided some of their popular children's books into different "I Can Read" levels, based on the structure and complexity of the content. Many of these are modern children's classics, and will be enjoyed by all children, whether read aloud or read alone. For your convenience in finding age-appropriate books for your young reader, we will list them in groups by level.

When my students were learning to read, finding enough readers to meet their needs was difficult. We found one book set, but after that what do you do? This series of My Very First I Can Read introduces four animal friends and their adventures accompanied by colorful, story-supporting illustrations. This series, based on recent literacy research, combines phonics and sight words and is aligned with CCS standards.

Each box set contains 11 short books and a parent guide with progress stickers and a few tips/activities to aid the child's reading. These activities vary according to set level. Each set progresses through three reading levels (the entire series works through levels A through G). For each box, the final level of readers is continued in the next set for continuity and added reinforcement. At the end of each 12-page reader is a Parents' Corner page with questions and ideas for learning organized by activity: Rereading the Book Together, Fun with Words and More Learning. When students successfully complete each book, they complete a Name page and receive a sticker to show their reading progress.

There is variety in these books, both in content and word choice. The first four books (Level A) in Box Set 1, for example, work through the short vowel sounds, beginning with Big Pig, Nat the Cat, Tug the Pup and then Pen Hen. But they don't restrict themselves to just short vowels or single consonants. The third book introduces long vowel sounds as in "likes" and "make". Consonant pairs are introduced from the beginning of the series. From the sixth book on (in Level B), two and three syllable words are introduced (fireflies, snowflakes, and everyone). Box Set 2 begins with Level C, continuing the one-sentence per page storylines, but gradually introduces dialogue and multiple, lengthier sentences. Box Set 3 begins with Level E and gradually increases the difficulty so that by Level G, each page contains 3-4 sentences of up to nine words in length. The softcover 5" x 5" books come in a cardboard storage box. ~ Ruth