Pip and Tim decodable books from Little Learners Love Literacy
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Before I buy a book, I like to pick it up and look through it properly myself.
I also like to hear about it from independent reviewers, not rely on information from those selling it. They’re hardly going to tell me if there’s something wrong with it.
Unfortunately, a lot of excellent books and other resources to help kids learn to read and spell aren’t readily available in mainstream shops.
They’re only available online, or from specialist shops that aren’t always easy to visit. So they’re hard to leaf through, and it’s also difficult to find independent reviews of them.
I’m thus using this blog to help get the message out about good resources I use and recommend from publishers and specialist stores without huge marketing budgets.
I hope this helps more learners get access to them, plus helps those selling them compete with huge companies peddling nasty look-at-the-picture-and-guess books and other dross.
Here’s a video I’ve made about the Pip and Tim decodable books from Little Learners Love Literacy, which I think are perfect for Aussie 4-6 year olds. I use them with some 7-year-old strugglers too. They’re cute, funny and designed to help kids learn to sound out words quickly and well. They’re also available very affordably as iPad apps.
No, I don’t sell these books or get paid any commission on them. I just like them a lot, and hope that (if you have 4-7 year-old literacy learners in your life) you do too.
6 responses to “Pip and Tim decodable books from Little Learners Love Literacy”
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The Spelfabet shop has affordable, downloadable spelling teaching resources.
I love these books. I taught with the author some years ago and we taught synthetic phonics with esl students. These books began as little paper fold outs which we used in the classroom and kids love them. Kids love these books, the art work and easy formats really promote reading with youngsters.
Hi Alison
I have an 8 year old in year 3 who is a struggling reader. I note that you say these books are perfect for 4 to 6 year olds. Do you think they would be suitable for a slightly older child? If not could you recommend a series that might be okay.
Hi Margaret, some 8-year-olds love the Little Learners books, so I think if they look like the kind of thing your child would like, they should be fine. Some 8-year-olds are very insistent that they don’t want to read “babyish” books, so if your 8-year-old is more like that, I’d suggest the catch-up books from Phonic books https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/product-category/catch-up-readers. There are five suppliers in Australia, three of which are nonprofits (DSF in Perth and SPELD SA and NSW) click on the “international” button on the Phonic Books website to find all their contacts. The SA SPELD website also has free phonic books, see http://www.speld-sa.org.au/faq/about-speld-sa-phonic-books.html, and the Rip Rap books might also suit, ask your child to try a few sample pages you can find here, and discuss whether you want books with or without pictures (rip rap have no pictures so they really do look like big kids’ books): http://www.cumquatmay.com.au/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=8. Hope you find something that works well for your child. Alison
HI Alison,
I love these books too. Nearly as much as the Songbirds series by Julia Donaldson – which seem to be similar.
I am so grateful for your sight.
The ‘edge’ slipstream (uk?) readers are great especially for boys. They have a number of writers working on series within different themes and levels. Level 1 & 2 are considered high interest low vocabulary books. I found them through the Brisbane city council library service.
check out https://www.hachette.com.au/steve-skidmore/edge-monsters-like-us-mummy-mayhem
Hi Kylie, thanks for this tip, I have a bunch of learners who are kind of in the grey zone between reading carefully-structured decodable books and leaping off into trying to read anything they choose, so they need books like these that are interest-based, and they’re always a little hard to find. Animals, sport, mummies, vampires, all the good stuff. Thanks so much, I’m ordering a few to try out now. Alison