Review: Bob Books

I am a reader. I have always been a reader. My mother took me to the library every week when I was a child. I wanted to live there. Marco is also a reader. He refuses to pay more than $12 to get his hair cut, but he won't blink an eye at buying a $30 hardcover novel every week. And, he actually reads them.

All three of our children ask to be read to several times a day, not just before bed. They see us reading our own books all the time. And for several hours each day Annabella will listen to audio books on her CD player. She recognizes letters and can write many of them. She sees her 7-year-old cousin read and when she recites books that she's memorized, she imitates the slow and steady tone he uses to sound out the words.

But if I ever try to encourage her to read on her own, she acts as if I've just tried to poke her with a corkscrew. 

I decided that maybe I was just doing it wrong. So, I was interested when MotherTalk offered to send me the Bob Books for beginning readers by Bobby Lynn Maslen & John R. Maslen. Annabella was very excited when the books arrived. The set came with over a dozen small, paper back books with brightly colored covers. And even though the books are a lot simpler than the books I normally read to her, she listened with the same quiet attention as she listens to the plot-heavy Henry Huggins.

The Bob Books start slowly, with only a few sounds at a time. The sounds that each book uses are listed at the beginning of the book. Annabella had about five minutes of patience with me asking her to sound out the letters and then she said plainly, "Mom, I want you to read it." When I tried to point to the words as I read them, she pushed my hand away. "I can't see the pictures!" I tried to encourage her a little more until she shouted with all the exasperation a four and half year old can muster, "I DON'T WANT YOU TO TEACH ME TO READ!"

I've consulted my expert sister and she assures me that her son (now an avid reader) had the same angst over reading, until one day when he didn't. Her friends report similar experiences. And yet, it's still hard to know where encouragement becomes pressure. If you take the training wheels off too early, your child can take some mean falls off their bike that they might just not recover from. Leave them on too long and they become a lot harder to take off at all.

So, I've put away the BOB Books for a while. If I'm going to do the reading, then it's going to be our steady rotation of Beverly Cleary and Dr. Seuss. I'll try the Bob Books again in a few months.

Here's a look inside Book 1 of Set 1 of the Bob Books.

Comments

[Anna]

I'm a literacy specialist and mother of a two year old, and I think you're definitly right to put the BOB books away for now. The exposure she's getting through read aloud and parents modeling a literate life is probably just what she needs. She'll be motivated and interested in reading on her own in time. I also have to remind myself with my little one to give her space to develop at her own rate. The balance can be tricky!

[Jean]

We got a box of BOB books from my dh's great aunt, and M loves them. In the beginning, she could sound out words, but would put up the same resistance to reading, so we let it go too. If the interest isn't there, it won't happen. The first book she read is called "The Big Bug Dug" (you can see the in-depth plot already, can't you?). We sat together, and she was so excited that she read it, that flipped the switch.

About a month later, on a very, very long road trip, where she was in the 3rd row, and I was in the 2nd with C and not able to read to her, she took off reading the Dick and Jane treasury I'd given to her the morning we left. And now she's reading on her own as much as we read to her.

Where we still get the "I don't *want* to!" is when it comes to numbers, counting, math. We're letting it go until she changes her mind.

It will come when it comes, but I feel your frustration. You know she has the skill set, and, having been a reader forever, you can't understand not wanting to read. At least I couldn't. Just know you're doing the right things.

[Kacy]

I love the Romona Books..I think as a young girl my mom and I read almost every one together.. Romona and her mother, Romona and her father..etc. etc. One of the ones that stick out in my almost 31 yr old mind is when she was going to school for the first time; and the teacher told her to sit some place for the present, and she thought she was getting a gift. Okay maybe you didn't need to know that, but Beverly Cleary had such a talent!!

[dmatthews]

We did the bob books when they were 5 and they did not like them at first and then one day they just started reading from them and now they are great readers and love to get books all the time now. They will read and not watch TV. and they are 13 now.

[Jennifer]

I'm a former art teacher. I think you are so very right to put it away for a while. Let her take the lead on when she's ready to read on her own. And enjoy getting to cuddle and read to her as long as you can. She'll outgrow that too. And you'll miss it just like you do rocking that sleeping baby.

If she gets to be 6 and she's still not into it, then you might need a little more pressure. But with both you and Marco modeling the reader lifestyle, she's bound to catch on soon. They always want to do what mom and dad do; that is until they turn 13 or so... ;)

[ann]

Just read them to her if she wants, leave them out for her to explore on her own. She's memorizing them as you go because they are very simple words at first. There are 3 sets and by set 2 you almost don't need set 3. Anyway after a few days dump out a scrabble board and ask Annabella if she can spell any words for you. I can almost bet you she'll spell Matt and Sam. Then replace the first consanant tile with a different one and see if she can read it. After she does you can congratulate her with teaching herself to read. I know, I did this with my 15 yr old who is not only a MAJOR book reader, but also a budding author and poet.