Homeschool Friday - Go Away Spot

Homeschool Friday is a feature here at Somewhere Only We Know that showcases books my family reads during homeschool and provides a mini-review for each.

Go Away, Spot

By: Scott Foresman

Publication: September 15, 2003 by Penguin Young Readers

32 pages

Genre: Children's, Level-2 Readers, Early Reading

Source: Personal Library

( Goodreads | Amazon )

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Goodreads description--Millions of Americans remember Dick and Jane (and Sally and Spot, too!). Now Dick and Jane and all their pals are back with revised editions of these classic readers for a whole new generation of readers to enjoy!

Go Away Spot

Dick said, "Down, Spot. I cannot play. Down, Spot, down. Go away, little Spot. Go away and play."

I've mentioned before that many Step-1 or Level-1 readers are published by Scholastic or Random House. Although, Penguin obviously publishes early readers also. They typically consist of 32 pages with one or two short sentences per page or opening. Go Away, Spot is a Read with Dick and Jane book originally published in 1951. And well, things have changed a good bit since then. This book is 32 pages, but each page is filled with multiple sentences--sometimes up to 7 sentences per page. While this isn't an abundance, my now 7-year-old gets quickly overwhelmed when he sees paragraphs or what is to him many words on one page. He intended to read this book in parts, like half now and half another day. But I kind of tricked him into reading the entire thing in one sitting--which he is completely capable of.

Go Away, Spot is a deceiving title. Only half of the book involves Spot at all. This book is full of repetitive words and phrases. The stories don't rhyme necessarily, but they do promote mastery. You can tell by the words used in the book as well as the illustrations that this was written many years ago. But I don't think newer is always better. If this is the level-1 readers of 1951, our 32 pages with 2 sentences a page seems a little piddly.

Go Away, Spot gets 4 Stars. I liked that many of the same words and phrases were used throughout the book to promote mastery. And I also liked that this book was a bit more of a challenge to my son who gets easily overwhelmed. It wasn't the words themselves that were challenging, but simply seeing so many words on one page was the challenge. Have you or your child read Go Away, Spot? What did you think? Let me know!