My First BOB Books: Pre-Reading Skills

The Bob Books series is an excellent starter in the phonics based read for those children eager to begin their love for reading. The the store prices are the best by far. Pick up a few levels and get their free shipping. Your kids will feel as they have accomplished so much when they finish each book in the level you have purchased. High recommend.

My Girls love these books. Recommended by the school to help them read. My 5 year old picked them up very easily and my 3 year old started to follow along as well. both are now reading on their own, my wife continue to buy the remaining editions as they are effective books to help the kids learn to read.

This book is just simple black & white drawings of people, like stick figures but based on shapes. This series is about introducing simple shapes and simple patterns of shapes. I don't really see it as pre-reading skills. I would skip this series. If you want a dozen quick black & white mini-books on some shapes and simple patterns then it is ok, but not for readings skills really. I guess by "pre-reading skills" they meant shapes etc. as something to do before the child can attempt to read at all. This book is not "preparatory" for reading.

I highly recommend this book series. My 5 years old son learn read with it and now I got this beginners level for my 4 years old daughter and she loves it. It has a lot of short nice easy books . We read it like snacks; )

Great for my toddler letter and shape recognition. Eventually, words and reading because of early exposure with these simple short stories keeps her attention span. We read the whole box in one sitting.

my daughter was not very interested and you don't get very much for the price. overall I don't think this will help a child towards learning to read, and I'm saying that as a teacher of 15 years. I wish I hadn't wasted my money on this set.

This set is awful. I wish someone would have saved me the trouble and told me that this set was a set of books which I had to read to my son and he couldn't even try to read because it is that difficult. There are so many big words!! I was expecting a pre-k level reading book... just like the other great sets Bob Books has to offer. I can (and do) always read any other book to my kids for reading time.. I chose this set because I thought it would help my preschooler. Instead it's so hard that he can't even begin to sound things out.

Weird stories about three friends who are shapes. I was looking for something my child could read as a beginner reader. These were for kids learning shapes, shapes that will be the shapes of letters.

These pre reading skills are super important. Children must know their shapes, sorting, patterning, sequencing, colors etc. BEFORE they begin to read. They can be learned at the same time as they learn letters or before. I teach PreK and many children coming to me don't know these skills. These pre reading books should be introduced at age 2 (often these skills are not). If your child already knows their letters don't buy this set. For children who know letters and sounds get the Bob Books FIRST set. If learning letters get the ABC set.

Bob Books are very good for children learning to read. I used these with my 2 children and my students.

This very clever and effective teaching technique offers parents a book of pre-reading skills. Its concept is to introduce the child to three shapes which they will need to know to later recognize letters. The shapes are circle, square, and triangle. The child learns about them through stories he or she will like and smiling drawings of the shapes as "people." The stories are the kind kids like and the drawings will make them laugh - and learn.

I wanted to return this product because I have never liked BOB books, however, I put it in the back of my car and promptly forgot about it. I sold it. BOB books are portrayed as beginning reader books, but in my experience,(I am a preschool teacher) they are too small in size, too lengthy to hold a preschoolers attention (especially this package) and I've just not been overly fond of BOB books. I find more success with the Dolch word lists andPreschool Prep & Sight Words 7 DVD Pack (Meet the Letters, Meet the Numbers, Meet the Shapes, Meet the Colors, Meet the Sight Words 1, Meet the Sight Words 2, Meet the Sight Words 3). I do not recommend the BOB books series at all.

Buy only "collection" series (available from pre-reader collection until collection 6) which is the new version. Be warned "set" series is older version thus later you will find books are repeating which next grade purchase

Really like these books. I purchase them for my 2yr old but not their yet. So my 6yr old reads them a little simple for her but she thinks its fun. I would purchase more books like these. I am looking for books like this for a 2yr old simple like the Sam and Jane books from back in the day!

We checked these books out from the library because the set 1 BOB Books were not available. I thought we could work on these until the other books were available. They are supposed to teach shapes and patterns, my kids were confused by what the books were supposed to be teaching. The shapes were not obvious. In the later books, they could recognize the patterns, but instead of going in deeper, the pattern changes on the next page. It seemed to me like the lessons were too short and needed much more outside work. My children just turned 5 and 3, they already know the concepts introduced in this set of books, but were confused by what I was reading to them. My experience may have been different if they were learning these concepts for the first time though.

Now that we have begun working on the Set 1 books, it bothers my son that the triangle shaped person in the pre-reading books is named Tanner but in the Set 1 books is named Sam. Even though he can recognize the word Sam, he points to the picture and ask why the page said "Sam" but shows a picture of Tanner.

I think there are much better books out there for teaching patterns and shapes.

These books have an almost handwritten font and very simple pictures that really make it easy for little ones to read. My four year old son loves these books - they are the first books he ever read and keeps going back to these.

As an illustration major, I know that a successful childrens book's illustrations can be simple, even if they're just black and white line drawings. They don't need to be realistic, as stylization is often preferred in children's books. The same goes for a simple story line, with short words that, especially with young readers, need to be easy to sound out. Dr. Suess is a well know example who successfully pulls all of that off. However, in my opinion Bob books don't. It's my impression that the illustrations were put together at the last second, or as an afer thought, by someone with no illustration background. To some the pictures may not be as important as the words or story (which are just as boring in the bob books, btw) but, to me these books aren't inspiring creativity, nor are they very engaging for visual learners. It makes the whole experience of reading these to my son, painfully boring and bland.