Review of I See Sam

All of my kids are decent readers, so I was a little skeptical when I set out to review Academic Success for All's Little Books.  I wasn't really sure that they would help my kids.  However, after taking the assessment, it was clear that these books were perfect for Michael (7).  Although Michael reads beginning chapter books, he does not read with confidence and, I've found out, he sometimes skips over words he doesn't want to bother sounding out.

This reading program is a set of 141 color-coded books. There are up to 27 books in each of 8 sets.  The sets range from a reading level of K-3.6 and are correlated to the No Child Left Behind standards.  The Scope and Sequence of the books can be seen here.  We received the books for levels 1.3-1.6 and 1.6-2.0

As I had initially suspected, these books were pretty easy for Michael to read, but I trusted the assessment.  To get help finding out what level your children might need, contact the company here.

There are several reasons I really like these books.  First of all, there are assessments built into each level of books.  For instance, in the yellow set, there are assessments in books 6, 11, 16, and 21.  In this one set, your child learns 109 new regular words and 15 sight words.  The books are very simply presented with black and white drawings and not too many words on each page written in a very clear font.  They are designed to make your child feel successful reading.  One book can be completed in a very short time (depending on the level), and your child then has the satisfaction of being able to say that he read a whole book.  New skills are then reinforced in succeeding books.  The best way to see how these Little Books work is to view the demo, found here.

Each set of Little Books retails for $30 and can be purchased here.  Remember that for that price, you will receive up to 27 books (the number of books is dependent on the level; see the website for details).

The Little Books really opened my eyes about my son's reading level.  After completing sets 3&4, he is reading more confidently and, more importantly, I know how to continue helping him with new words.  We really liked "I See Sam." For more opinions, see the Crew Blog.

Disclaimer: I received these books free in exchange for my review.  The product was complimentary, but the opinion is all mine.