Monsters' Nonsense: The Green Gobbler: Practice Phonics with non-words

What a lovely idea to include non -sense words within a story. I read Green Gobbler to the class who have only been in school for 3 months and it was interesting to see who could hear the phonemes and blend them in their heads in order to say the word. At this stage of the year they are developing those skills and so I was pleased to see that some manged it. It did break up the story line a bit to stop and sound out so in the end I picked and mixed the opportunities for them to listen to and sound out the word. I'm not sure if the illustrations were clear enough to be seen for a large group on the carpet, so this is definitely for smaller groups and would be fine for cuddling up at bedtime. I would definitely use these books in a 1 to 1 session to help cue in a child who was struggling to sound out and blend words. The storylines are great and quite funny so may help tune a child into stories. Also good for predicting endings and talking about how the characters felt. Also I think a strength of these books is the glossary and explanations for mums and dads. Unless you have had a phonic session in school you may not know what a nonsense word is and why your child would be expected to read them!! Really helpful for those Year 1 parents who are aware of the phonic screening that takes place. These would also make great independent readers for year 2 and 3 children. So they cover a good age range. I lent the book to the year 1 teacher to see what the children thought. They loved the storylines but got very hung up on what the words actually meant. In the end she let them attribute meaning to the words and then they were happy!! 24 pages / Ages 4+ / Reviewed by Lynnette Voisey, teacher.

Suggested Reading Age 5+