The beginnign reader book I chose was, Little Bear's Friend, written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak; this was an I CAN READ book. In the beginning of the book, a small bear named Little Bear was sitting in the trees looking out at the world. He see's a young girl on the ground who is lost. When Little Bear gets to the bottom, he helps the girl named Emily and her doll, Lucy find their way back to Lucy's parents tent. Lucy is spending the summer camping with her family. From this point on, Little Bear and Emily are great friends and they spend almost everyday playing together. They play with Little Bear's other friends Owl, Cat, Duck and Hen. The first time the play they have a tea party and Emily's dolls breaks her arm. But Little Bear saves the day and wraps Lucy's arm up with some tape to fix it. At the end of the summer Emily must leave to go back to school but she gives Little Bear a pen as a goodbye presnet. In return, Little Bear gives Emily a sailboat to sail in her bathroom. Once Emily leaves, Little Bear wants to leave how to write so he can write Emily a letter. Once he does learn to write he writes Emily telling her he misses her and can not wait until next summer so they can play again!
This book was in the form of a chapter book. It was a very easy read and only had a couple sentences on each page. There were four chapters in the book and each page had illustrations on it. This book was still a children's book but was a step above the normal children's picture books. What makes a beginning reader book different from a typical children's book is that the text is very easy and simple to read. This is because a child is reading this to themsleves and the adult is not reading it to them. Many children's book are for very young children who can not read themselves yet so the adult just reads the stories to them. This however, must be made simple enough that a beginning reader can read and comprehend the story on their own.
I think this book was a great example of a beginning reader book because it was simple to read but it looked like a "grown up" book. Since it was in the form of a chapter book and the illustrations were just on the upper half of the page, a child feels like they are reading an older children's book. Most children beginning to read want to feel like they are mature and can read a book by themselves. By reading this book own their own and finishing it, a child will feel a great sense of accomplishment which will empower them to want to read more books like it.
I found no awards given for this book.
Minarik, Else. Little Bear's Friend. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. 1960
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