Usborne Phonics Readers 20 Books Collection Box Set Paperback – April 3, 2023

My son loves to be read to and could sit for hours with me telling him stories, but he is "behind" his classmates in reading on his own. He comes home from kindergarten with early readers that are as dull and flat as watching paint dry. The simplicity is good for early decoding, but not much else so I decided to mix things up. We ordered Bob books, which are widely celebrated, and these. I balked at the price but they received such great reviews on the Usborne site. I have also had many parent friends in other countries recommend most anything by Usborne. My son hasn't really gotten into the Bob books because he is so interested in these. He stays awake after lights are out to read these with his flashlight. They are supremely silly or funny and rhyme. The rhyming helps him anticipate words and to sound them out based on what he already knows. Mostly, though, unlike a lot of early readers with zero plot, these have suspense and plots twists that are perfect for preschoolers and early elementary kids. He laughs so much when we read these stories, even though I point to each word as we go, which can be a bit of a story buzz kill. Some of the characters reappear across the books, too, which adds to the interest. A good number of these books also have a duck that's similar to Richard Scarry's goldbug that children (and adults) can hunt for on each page. The duck hunt adds to the fun. The pages are thick and some books have fold outs, which are great if your child has busy hands, like mine. My son also loves the box and plays books shop with them (inspired by the picture book Dog Loves Books.) Of course, every child eventually learns how to read no matter how much early pressure schools put on kids, but we have wanted to raise a reader who is passionate about books. So many early readers, in my opinion, turn kids off of reading. They're work. But this collection is the kind with which children won't notice the very hard work they are doing learning simple and complex phonemes because they are having so much fun. Very much worth the hefty price tag.

These little stories are so much fun to read to the kiddos-and a sneaky way to point out the sounds of the words! This collection of books is a real bargain 😊

I love these books, and I'm so glad I found them! With COVID-19 hitting smack dab in the middle of my daughter's kindergarten year, running into her first grade year, and the fact that virtual learning is an extremely terrible and ineffective way to teach kids to read, these books have been a life saver! Between using these and working on her sight words, on our own, she's jumped up several reading levels in the past few months and is close to finally being where she should be for her grade level. She went from having completely lost all confidence as it relates to reading because of the ineffectiveness of virtual learning, to gaining her confidence back and enjoying reading once again! My mama heart couldn't be more grateful.

Wonderful books. Great rhyming stories and fun for grandma to read. Kids love them!

These book are awesome. We homeschool, and I am teaching my daughters to read using a phonics based instruction rather than sight words. It is incredibly difficult to find readers that are phonics based. Forget about finding engaging phonics readers! Well, Usborne has hit it out of the park. These books are amazing! Also, they are very big in size which is nice. The storylines are interesting, the illustrations are captivating, and the books have little flaps on several of the pages that are so exciting for my kids to find. Not to mention, in the back of every book, there is a little "teacher's guide" to help you help your child with the multi-letter phonograms and tricky words. Throw out all your boring bob books and buy these! I keep coming back to Usborne and I will continue to do so!

I would have given 5 stars IF the llama in Pyjama book wasn’t misspelled.My 5 year old (almost 6) kindergarten kiddo can read all these books after 2 months of teaching her to read. The Bob books were great for the first 1-3 weeks of teaching her to read but these are SOOOO much better. Great stories, pictures and just the right amount of challenge. She loves how the characters make cameos in the different books!

Wow! I bought this collection because of the reviews and wanted something that would be fun for learning to read. This was a hit for my 4 year old. We read 10 of them together before bedtime in 2 sittings and he is asking for more. He says the books are funny and he has fun finding the duck and telling me the words that rhyme. This is definitely a good collection to keep and read over and over. Hoping he will start recognizing the words and want to start reading independently as well. This is much more fun to read together than the Bob books and the illustrations are even better.

Love, love, LOVE these books! My son is in kindergarten, and just turned 6. He's beyond Bob Books and the Primary Phonics Readers were boring him. I did some research to try and motivate him and came across Usborne Phonics. These books are made of high quality, nice colored pictures, and a true story line. Some words are challenging for my son, but not so much that it discourages him. Quite the opposite; he is so proud of himself when he reads the "big words" he just wants to keep on reading to see what other "big words" he can read! I'm so glad we discovered Usborne! We will be investing in Usborne My 1st Library after we finish this set!