My daughter is so proud when she reads the Learn to Read CVC Words Storybook! CVC Words Storybook by Crystal Radke (Rockbridge Press, 2022) helps her build confidence, and while I find the stories a bit simplistic, it nicely matches her interest and abilities.
She’s in first grade, and when we first started with this book, sounding out CVC and short vowel words still felt a bit difficult for her. Now that she’s been practicing at school for three months, her confidence has grown. She and I take a look at this book and she loves that she can now read the short stories comfortably.
Each story focuses on two main CVC words, such as get/wet, big/pig, dog/got, and so forth. Each page of the following story features two illustrated panels with one sentence each. Each sentence per story has the focus words, as well as other CVC words that the student can likewise sound out. So each story provides plenty of review for those keywords or phrases, as well as practice with other common CVC words.
The stories themselves are not high-interest, in my opinion. This is not uncommon in early readers like this, so it was not surprising to me. These dull structured stories are somewhat annoying for parents to read, I’ll admit. But, my 7-year-old was not surprised and phased by this at all. She expected simple sentences and appreciated the formulaic structure. Most of the stories restate the same phrases with new nouns or settings. In the wet/get story, for example, multiple things get wet (Cam, Sam, van, rat). It does end with “I will not get wet!”, with the illustration featuring a child inside. That made my daughter laugh.
While the CVC Words Storybook is not truly intended to teach a child to read, this storybook-workbook provides lots of reading practice and engaging workbook pages. Activities after the stories include word tracing, word mazes, color-by-word, sentences to copy, and so forth. I’ll be honest, though: it’s such a gorgeous book that I don’t want to write on the pages! The illustrations are simply adorable. They perfectly fit the age of the intended readers. I cannot imagine parents wanting to use such a pretty book as a consumable workbook. But, that is a mom of multiple children talking. Maybe other parents would enjoy the combination of early reader and workbook.
So, for parents of young ones getting started in the CVC reading journey, the Learn to Read CVC Words Storybook (with workbook activities) would be a nice choice. It certainly matches the age intended it is for and helps those early readers strengthen their confidence in their reading abilities.
Note: I received a digital copy of CVC Words Storybook for review consideration.
