Getting Ready to Read
By Marileta S. Robinson, Senior Editor
Younger readers can count on finding stories geared to their abilities and interests in Highlights each month.
Many of these stories will also appeal to older readers who are still building confidence in their reading skills.
Easy-to-read stories, marked by a blue diamond in the table of contents, are about half as long as stories for more advanced readers. The stories for beginning readers are printed in larger type and have shorter, simpler sentences.
"Chili Dog and the Cookbook Treasure," one of the easy-to-read stories in the May issue, is a funny tale about a misguided treasure hunt. For parents who are reading Highlights to or with their children, the illustrations provide a lot to talk about. Kids will enjoy pointing out the objects and characters mentioned in the story.
"Where Are We Going, Mama?" keeps the reader and the main character guessing about the "someplace special" the child and her mother are heading to—right up to the satisfying conclusion. Illustrations for this story in the May issue show several scenes from the story in sequence. Parents can use the illustrations to help their children retell the story from memory, an important developmental reading skill.
Pictures are important in another easy-toread feature, the rebus. Even very young children can help "read" the May rebus, "The Dog Won't Eat," by naming the object shown beside the word. And all readers will appreciate the laugh at the end.
Highlights provides entertaining stories, articles, and activities at a variety of reading levels so that every child can find something to read that's just right for him or her.
Highlights Cofounder Caroline Clark Myers once said, "While we are not making a book primarily to teachchildren how to read, we believe that(the child) acquires skill in reading if he uses the book."