Two New Books for Beginning Readers
CeciI Lake, B.C. Oct. 1992 Children learning how to read, learn best with books containing repetition, imaginative illustrations, meaningful subject matter, and natural language. MANNY'S MANY QUESTONS and KELLY'S GARDEN, two new books by Louise Susy Framst, are excellent examples of books for beginning readers. Parents and grandparents find This book equally interesting because they, also, realte to the events in these stories.
MANNY'S MANY QUESTIONS has an added bonus: innovative formatting-by-phrases to promote development of reading skills in immature readers. In this unique format the sentences have been broken into phrases which are inset from the margin. When this format was tested with children, they report they like it . They said, "the lines are shorter and easier to read, " "the lines don't all start in the same place, so little kids won't be confused", and "we like the way it looks on the page!"
The Author's Note which appears on the cover, answers the question. Is this a Native book? The answer is "Yes", because the author is a Tahtan Indian. To help the reader understand more about native culture, this note explains one feature of the book which is typically native. A second goal for including this notation is to help break down the stereotype view of Indians (or First Nations people.. if you prefer this term). It emphasizes that native children, like children everywhere, learn through play and expetimentation. Their activities are similar, but the way they do the activities and the reasons behind the actions might be different, rooted in the culture. The third. is to show native ideas and ideals in a modern context.