Review of Richard Scarry's Great Big Schoolhouse readers: "Snow Dance" and "One, Two, AH-CHOO!"

Richard Scarry, One Life 002

Last week I wrote about the wonderful resources I use to teach my kids to read. But it’s always nice to just have some fun books that are written at a level that the kids can read to themselves. So, I’m happy to review a couple of Richard Scarry’s Great Big Schoolhouse readers today. The titles are Snow Dance and One, Two, Ah-Choo.

Snow Dance (Richard Scarry’s Readers Level 1) is a fun story written for Level 1 readers. It’s described on the back as “Introduce Your Child to Reading.” The hardback book is 23 pages long and is full of the wonderful Richard Scarry illustrations. I have loved those books since I was a kid! In Snow Dance, Huckle gets a new sled. He tries to sled inside the house, but that doesn’t work. So, he gets his friends together to bring a bunch of ice cubes to sled on. That doesn’t work either. Finally, they do a snow dance and the flakes start to fall! Soon there is enough snow for all the friends to enjoy sledding!

My 5-year-old daughter had fun reading Snow Dance. She loved how the words were large, the sentences were short, and she was able to sound out most of the words. (The most difficult words were the kids’ names.)

The second book we reviewed was Richard Scarry’s Readers (Level 2): One, Two, AH-CHOO!.

In the Level 2 readers “Your Child Starts to Read.” I gave this one to my 7-year-old son to read. It’s a funny little story about a class full of kids who have a cold. Huckle and Lowly go from friend to friend trying to help them–giving them food, tissues, and get-well cards. They have several mishaps–dropping a tray of food, tipping over a cart of oranges, and dumping a wheelbarrow of leaves. And at the end Huckle and Lowly end up with colds as well.