Homeschool Friday - I See Love

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.

I See Love

By: David Wiseman

Publication: January 1, 2022 by The Good and the Beautiful Library

57 pages

Genre: Children's Literature, Early Readers, Level 1 Readers

( Goodreads )

Goodreads description--From the highest mountain range to the tiniest ant, the wonders of God’s creations surround us. As you look up and down, you will see beauty and love all around.

Most of the Level-1 readers we have are from publishers like Random House and Scholastics. But we use a homeschool curriculum company called The Good and the Beautiful for a lot of our curriculum. The Good and the Beautiful has its own books written by several authors. Jenny Phillips, the company's creator, writes many of the books herself. And the company emphasizes good and beautiful literature that has strong moral values. I cannot appreciate this more. Most of the "normal" level-1 reader books are about 32 pages long with one or two short sentences per page or opening. I See Love is a good bit longer with 57 pages and usually, one or two sentences per opening. I will say that this book is not currently listed on the site's bookshop. I don't know if they discontinued it or if it is just out of stock. But they have other books to check out as well.

I See Love begins with a challenging words page that includes 4 words used in the book that might be a little beyond the child's reading level, but I like that this is included at the beginning of the book so that you can go over these words with your child before they come to them in the book. This way maybe they will already recognize the words and be able to read them from memory already. Or if they get to one of these words while reading and can't sound it out phonetically or remember it, they will at least not be surprised and feel discouraged for not being able to read a challenging word.

I See Love encourages the reader to see the beauty in the world all around them. There's beauty up high and down low. The book does rhyme, and it also has repetitive words and phrases to build vocabulary and mastery. But most of all, it is filled with wonderful messages about the world around us, beauty, and love. You can take level-1 readers and make them more than just recognizing words. There can be a moral and something to learn even from the very short and very "easy" words. 

I See Love is a 5-Star level-1 book for sure. (The Good and the Beautiful technically rates this book as a level 1B.) I love the repetitive words and phrases, but most of all, I love the morals and messages included in this book. We need more companies that focus on the messages we're sending to young kids. I also like that this is longer than a typical level-1 reader so that my son can get accustomed to reading longer books even though there aren't as many words on one page. Have you or your child read I See Love? What did you think? Let me know!