As I flipped through the pages of the first level, I thought ". . . hmmmm maybe too easy?" Some of the reader reviews on Amazon.com concurred. The stick figure cartoons were a little too simple and the stories were usually just a couple words in length, each reemphasizing the the vowel in the middle of two consonants.
Since Ella is too young for these books I thought it best to ask an expert who had "hands on" experience. Yvonne Waldbillig-Lutz was highly recommended by my sister in law Kelly who knows Yvonne as both a teacher with over twenty years experience, and as the director of Tiny Talking Hands Preschool. Yvonne has used all four levels of BOB, and is currently using BOB in her classroom "to introduce the reading process." Here's an excerpt from our interview:
Questions for Yvonne Waldbillig-Lutz, Director of Tiny Talking Hands Preschool, Seattle WA.
Q: BOB books include simple cartoon characters meant to enhance the early reading experience. Would you rate the value of these cartoons as: Very helpful, Somewhat helpful, Not helpful in teaching young readers. Please explain:
A: I would rate the pictures as somewhat helpful. I think young children are more drawn to full figured and colorful pictures.
Q: BOB books use repetitive vowel sounds to facilitate early reading skills in Level One of the Series. Would you rate the value of this content as: Interesting, Somewhat interesting, not very interesting to young readers? Please explain:
A: I think the content is rather boring to the child. Recently, I was working with a 3 year old who is very quick to learn. . . .He quickly understood the lesson and read the stories with ease. I tried to enhance the stories by asking him what he thought would happen next and how did he think the characters felt. At the end on the story I asked him if he liked the story. He said it was boring. This is a child who is continuously read to using inviting and interesting text with ongoing explanation of the vocabulary in the literature. Of course the Bob Books were boring to him. But they do teach that first lesson easily.
