Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together - You Read to Me

This is fun, because the children already know the Nursery Rhymes....and we can share with each other. As a tutor, I love these books because I don't have to read it all and it helps me see how their reading is improving.

My 2nd grade students love these books! They enjoy the short stories within the book. Also, it helps them to practice their expression, fluency, and reading rate with a friend during literacy stations. A must have in the classroom.

The idea for this book line is superb! One person reads the left line, the other reads the right line, and both read the middle line in unison. The story and the pictures are equally good, and give the readers more than a few giggles. Highly entertaining and highly recommended!

As a teacher who regularly works with struggling readers, I find this interactive format of benefit to beginning readers, and a great way to snuggle with a favorite child. I highly recommend all of the books in the "You Read to Me, I'll Read to You" series by Hoberman and Emberley.

While my students LOVE this book in print (5 stars in print), the Kindle version on the iPad lacks any formatting (color or placement of text) to assist the readers. Wish I hadn't been so hasty and viewed it before I purchased 2 of these books...

I bought these mainly for the length and overall quality. I only typically jump cars, so I can't speak to the heavy duty worthiness beyond that. I can say that I recently jump started a co-workers V8 Jeep. They were pulled in between two parked cars at an apartment community. I pulled up behind them and got my cables out of the back. They kept commenting about hoping my cables would reach. I laid them out from the battery side of my car, along the entire length of their SUV and along the front of their car. Their jaw almost hit the ground! There was still a couple of feet of cable. I really like that the clamps were coated all the way down to where the cables grip onto the terminal. I LOVE the way the clamps securely grip onto and hold the terminal. No cable I have ever owned has grabbed this securely and held on and I only buy mid-grade or higher cables. Most mid-grade cables will move on the terminal under the weight of the cables, but not these. They stayed perfectly in place while I made adjustments. Very satisfied!

This book is absolutely the most deplorable thing I have ever received. I purchase a lot of used books for my forensics group to use a competitions and this is unusable. I will be returning this. It has so many sticky stains on it I'm afraid to let the students touch it let alone take it to give to judges at competition. I'd give it no stars if I could.

My five-year-old daughter is still young enough that she wants to curl up and snuggle and read a bedtime story together, but because she's a precocious reader there aren't many books on her reading level that still capture her interest. This book is perfect because it's adequately challenging to her (she's currently reading at a level 3.2, or third grade, if that helps anyone) but it also has themes and stories that are fun and engaging and a little silly. I've found that it's a great way to kill two birds with one stone-- we get our bedtime bonding and also some academically important reading time, too! I recommend this book most to kids of any age who are reading at between a 2nd and 4th grade level, who enjoy bonding with their parents over bedtime stories.

My only complaint: the book contains allusions the Grimm version of Cinderella, which includes the stepsisters cutting off part of their feet to fit Cinderella's slipper. I would have preferred that the book not contain such graphic and disturbing imagery, especially for the youngest kids. It's unnecessarily gruesome. That's the only thing standing between this book and a five-star review!

Patron walks into my library the other day and demands a video that will teach their child how to read. Due to the fact that my library only carries Sesame Street videos that deal with holidays or sing songs, there wasn't much to offer. But the patron's demand got me thinking. Finding good materials that help children to read can be awfully difficult sometimes. Books for early readers tend to be dull (like your average "Dick and Jane" fare) or facile. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, and one of the most notable exceptions is the remarkable, "You Read To Me, I'll Read To You". This is a book that has killed roughly four birds with a single stone. It helps kids to read, rhymes beautifully, introduces them to a wide variety of fairy tales, and is funny. Really honest-to-goodness funny. This is a book that parents will not cringe to read over and over with their young 'uns. Hoberman has given us a book that is going to be appreciated by a wide range of ages. All that and it's a clever idea to boot.

Here's the premise. Each story in this book is a fairy tale. Each fairy tale is a conversation between two characters. It is meant to be read aloud by either two beginning readers or between a beginning and a more-advanced reader. After picking their parts the readers alternate lines, rhyming all the while. So, for example, in "The Three Bears" we have one reader say, "I'm Goldilocks" and another say "I'm Baby Bear". "What pretty fur!". "What pretty hair!". You get the idea. Anything written in blue is meant to be read by both readers at the same time and every poem/story ends with the lines, "You'll read to me! I'll read to you!". There are seven stories altogether and each one softens the original tale just a bit. I was surprised to see references to the Grimm version of Cinderella as well as the original ending of The Three Little Pigs. As it happens, however, no one gets eaten or hurt in these tales and in each case everyone ends the tale happily ever after.

This is not the first edition of "You Read To Me, I'll Read To You" to grace shelves around the world, you know. In fact, this book is a sequel to a predecessor of the same name that came out in 2001. Inanely, both versions have their reviews linked together here at the store.com. I'll state right here and now that this particular review that I am writing refers to the 2004 edition with the fairy tales in it. Let's just clarify that little detail once and for all.

Now the pairing of author Mary Ann Hoberman with illustrator Michael Emberley is nothing short of brilliant. While Hoberman has the almost unnatural ability of simplifying stories down to their essential parts, tacking on happy endings without sounding preachy, AND adding humor as well, Emberley is just as adept at pictures that are adorable, simple, and full of delightful details. Note that Jack in "Jack and the Beanstalk" is decked out in an utterly mod outfit, complete with tiger-striped shirt and go-go boots. Note also that when the third pig (at first) attempts to cook the wolf in a pot, he is holding a book called, "Cooking Lupine". Visual gag, meet fabulous wordplay. How do you do? How do you do?

So if a patron comes in asking me for a simple rhyming book that will help their child to read, I will be prepared. I shall promote this book as loudly as my indoor-librarian-voice allows me to. This is one of those rare buys that need to be touted widely to the public. A great exercise in reading and a necessary addition to every English-language-library.

Once your kids are a little familiar with fairy tales, and happily enjoying early readers, try them out on this book. My four year old (**) goes crazy for this book -- he laughs so hard about the different twists to his fairy tales.

This is a turn-taking read-aloud book told in rhymes. The meter of the words is EXCELLENT, and the ideas are very good. It's a creative series, and it's a fun way to get kids started on story-building.

It is so enjoyable to sit down with a child and laugh together, or to see my kids sit head-by-head and read to one another. The way the stories are written, both readers have roughly equal speaking parts, both have laugh lines, and both have fun.

This book helps build great families.

** This particular child is a great reader; I actually bought the book for elementary aged children.

My granddaughter has just learned to read, and she loves these books. There is a series of them, and I've gotten them all. Each poem is one or two pages. One character's part is printed in one color, and the other character's part is printed in a different color, so it's easy to tell what to read. The poems are easy to read, funny, entertaining, witty, silly, and really enjoyable for a reader who is reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level. Beautiful, colorful illustrations included for each poem.

My granddaughter has just learned to read, and she loves these books. There is a series of them, and I've gotten them all. Each poem is one or two pages. One character's part is printed in one color, and the other character's part is printed in a different color, so it's easy to tell what to read. The poems are easy to read, funny, entertaining, witty, silly, and really enjoyable for a reader who is reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level. Beautiful, colorful illustrations included for each poem.

Author, Mary Ann Hoberman and illustrator, Michael Emberley, have created a fourth book to add to their series of You Read to Me, I'll Read to You books. This book is different from Hoberman's other books in the series because it consists of brand-new scary stories where as her other books are versions of familiar fairy tales and rhymes. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together is a delightfully scary picture book written in two voices with alliteration and rhyme throughout. The book includes 15 spooky tales to read together. Don't worry, your bones won't shake too much because each story includes a bit of humor as well.

I find this book appropriate and fun for readers of all ages. Adults will enjoy it just as much as children. I read this book with the focus of using it with young English learners. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together meets that goal very well due to the color-coded words, large print, rhyme, alliteration, and illustrations that compliment the text on each page. Children can easily relate to and will enjoy the haunted characters and events. Older readers and adults will appreciate the humor as well. The illustrations are detailed and full of color bring each vampire, mummy, witch, goblin, skeleton, ghost, and ghoul to life.

As I mentioned before, I would recommend this book to readers of all ages. Children will enjoy the scary subject matter, tone set in two voices, rhythm and rhyme, and the kid-friendly illustrations. Older readers will enjoy being the characters, as they will laugh at the humor twisted in with the fright. I look forward to using this with my fourth grade students during the month of October for some read-aloud fun!

Ultimately my daughter and I enjoyed this book.

The caveat, however, was ALARMING enough to prompt this a review to give other readers a "heads up". We were 5 fairy tales in when we hit Cinderella (pg 18). The first 2 pages read as benignly and age-appropriately as one would expect. Upon turning to page 20, one is greeted with the GRAPHIC (for the beginning reader set) images of Cinderella's 2 stepsisters attempting to "CHOP OFF A LITTLE BIT" of their feet in order to fit into the glass slipper. When I say graphic, while there is no blood or gore, the sisters are wielding an AXE and ENORMOUS pair of scissors. One sister has the top of her foot between the scissor blades about to slice down, and the other sister has her foot up on a stool - with an axe poised in a two-handed grip above it! I literally gasped, and IMMEDIATELY slammed my hand over the images, as I found them SHOCKINGLY INAPPROPRIATE for highly suggestible preschool/Kindergarten-aged readers.

LOVED the concept of the book, and most of the prose. I generally consider the "beginning reader" book section of the library to be a safe place to pick up books to read to/with my child. However, in the future I will be sure to read any other books by this author IN ADVANCE of reading them with my daughter before bed!

Just a Parental FYI...

The concept of this book is very straight forward. One person (in my case the parent) reads the words in purple aloud and the child reads the words in blue aloud. Then both the parent and child read at the same time the red words aloud (called a chorus). I love the concept of reading aloud together, however, I do not like this particular book.

First of all, you really need to know the original nursery rhymes for anything in here to be remotely funny. Many of these rhymes my child does not know. Secondly, even though i knew most of the original nursery rhymes myself, I did not laugh once. Thirdly, I expected the harder words to be saved for the parent reading to not overly discourage the child from reading aloud their portion, but this is not the case. Both sides have tough words like "prodigy," "splendid," or "recognize." There is nothing wrong with pushing a reader to new vocabulary, its just that the toughness of the words move the book to a much higher reading level than the story material/content is appropriate. Lastly, I found the doctor putting Humpty Dumpty back together in the wrong way disturbing and not funny at all.

Even though there was a lot that I did not like about this book, there were two gems in here. The "Introduction" poem on how to use the book was very cute and what sold the book to me (because it was all I was able to preview online). Then the "Old King Cole and the Cat and the Fiddle" was awesome and the only reason I ended up keeping the book instead of returning it. I really did not like anything else in the entire book.

I just expected much more given the positive reviews. Would not have bought this book if I had read it in a store.

I have two of these books, this book which features fairy tales and another which features short stories. Even the most distracted student will put up a hand to participate with these books. They are well planned utilizing text in an offset, columnar fashion so the students know when to read their part. You will be met with great disappointment when it is time to go.

Grandkids love these books. They are just a lot of fun to read together. Even my second grader who is reading pretty well and maybe finds them a little below his ability enjoys picking his part and reading together. And for some reason we all end up shouting out the end of each poem YOU READ TO ME I'LL READ TO YOU!

My students absolutely love these books! We use them for reading with a partner, great in helping students build fluency! Would be a very fun bedtime read with your child. The reading level is about 2nd grade and up.

My students absolutely love these books! We use them for reading with a partner, great in helping students build fluency! Would be a very fun bedtime read with your child. The reading level is about 2nd grade and up.