Ravensburger Guinness World Records for First Readers - Pets (record book for learning to read)
German, 2024
From adventures to wildlife: which books inspire first-time readers?
16.2.2024
Translation: machine translated
With the qualified judgement of a seven-year-old first reader, we put educational reading books to the test - with lots of fun, addictiveness and unexpected excitement.
An endless, exciting, funny, thrilling and entertaining world opens up when children begin to read first individual words, then whole sentences and finally their first books themselves. We are currently at this important stage and have tested three different learn-to-read books with the expert opinion of a seven-year-old beginning reader.
Guinness World Records for First Readers: Pets
Children's books
Ravensburger Guinness World Records for First Readers - Pets (record book for learning to read)
German, 2024
Once a week, my son's class has the opportunity to spend an hour browsing through the school's own library. Week after week, one book is the highlight for the kids: The Guinness Book of World Records. It was therefore clear that we definitely wanted to test a version of the record-breaking classic for beginner readers. The decision was made in favour of the topic of pets.
Source: Anna Sandner
It quickly becomes clear: the short but exciting record descriptions are perfect for learning to read. There are usually no more than two sentences per record that young readers have to decode. And they already know another new fact that will impress their peers and adults alike. The records are beautifully illustrated on colourful pages with matching pictures. In between, small knowledge boxes appear again and again, summarising the key facts about the respective animal species. However, the seven-year-old usually skips these and jumps straight to the next record. This creates an - for once enjoyable - risk of addiction in my son. As the records are easy and quick to read, each paragraph is followed by: "One more! I want to read another record."
Wonderful, it's easy to learn. For example, we learn about the oldest pet goldfish called Tish, who lived to the proud age of 43 and - just like us humans - gradually changed his colour to silvery white. Or the fast turtle Bertie, who holds the turtle speed record at 28 centimetres per second. This makes Bertie twice as fast as his turtle mates.
This pleases: Perfect little reading snacks for learning to read
- Large font
- short sentences
- small reading units
- colourful and varied illustrations
- makes you want to read on
Guinness World Records for first readers is also available on other topics:
Children's books
Ravensburger Guinness World Records for first readers - Space (record book for learning to read)
German, 2024
The school of magical animals investigates: The green goo letter
Children's books
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 1: The Green Goo Letter (For Learning to Read)
German, Nina Dulleck, Margit Auer, 2020
The School of Magical Animals from the Carlsen publishing house began its triumphal march onto bookshelves in 2013. By now, there is hardly a child left who has not heard of the stories of the mysterious school with the talking animals. In addition to the main book series, there are now a number of spin-offs, one of which is the first reader series "The School of Magical Animals Investigates".
We take a closer look at the case of "The magic goo letter". And after the last few years of what felt like an endless number of unexciting children's books, it gave me an aha moment. For the first time, I don't know how the story is going to end after the first few pages. And I'm not alone in this: My son is also immediately gripped by the supposed murder mystery. So we end up reading more than originally planned because we both want to know how the case ends. Spoiler: surprising!
Source: Anna Sandner
What we also like: The most important characters are introduced on a double page at the beginning. My son, who barely knows the book series so far, keeps flicking back to it as he reads to look up who is who.
A surprise awaits us at the end: the magic puzzle. Nine questions about the story we have just read, the answers to which are inserted into a crossword puzzle and result in a solution word.
Source: Anna Sandner
This pleases: Cult factor with a really exciting story
- exciting case that makes you want to read on
- familiar characters
- short sentences
- large font
- lots of beautiful pictures
- exact recommendation according to reading level
- reading aid for difficult words with colourful syllables
- magical puzzle included
"The school of magical animals investigates" also in other cases:
Children's books
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 1: The Green Goo Letter (For Learning to Read)
German, Nina Dulleck, Margit Auer, 2020
Children's books
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 3: The Coconut Steal (For Learning to Read)
German, Margit Auer, Nina Dulleck, 2021
Children's books
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 4: The Flute Scare (For Learning to Read)
German, Margit Auer, Nina Dulleck, 2022
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 1: The Green Goo Letter (For Learning to Read)
German, Nina Dulleck, Margit Auer, 2020
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 3: The Coconut Steal (For Learning to Read)
German, Margit Auer, Nina Dulleck, 2021
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 4: The Flute Scare (For Learning to Read)
German, Margit Auer, Nina Dulleck, 2022
In addition, it is part of the Carlsen series "Einfach Lesen lernen", which has many other stories for first-time readers up its sleeve.
Leserabe: Football adventures for learning to read
Children's books
Ravensburger Soccer adventure to learn to read
German, Erhard Dietl, Claudia Ondracek, 2018
The third first-reader series that we are taking a closer look at is a classic from the Ravensburger publishing house: the Leserabe books. The choice of topics here is huge, we chose the football adventures to start with. If my son then wants to read more on the topic, he'll also find what he's looking for here.
Source: Anna Sandner
There are three different reading levels that build on each other and correspond roughly to grades 1-3. My choice was slightly off with a 1st reading level book, a level 2 book would have been better for the second grader. However, the seven-year-old expert sees this less critically, he is simply happy about the few words per page. The font is as large as promised on the cover: it exceeds the font size of the other educational reading books once again.
The football adventures consist of two independent stories, one of which is around 40-50 pages long and is divided into several chapters. Unfortunately, the content is somewhat disappointing, especially in comparison with the other two first reading books. The story of Tommi, who goes to the park with his dog Wolli to play football and then does just that with other children, is not very original. In my son's opinion, this has little to do with "adventures" and so we only make it to the second story with slight reluctance - which unfortunately doesn't have any unexpected twists either. Perhaps that would have been different with books of the 2nd and 3rd level.
The reader's raven song makes up for this a little. A QR code points the way to the YouTube video, which is of course very popular. The result, however, is a child sitting in front of a YouTube video after a disappointing read: Not exactly what I'm hoping for from a learning-to-read book. Luckily, on the last pages of the book I discover a short dictionary with the most important football terms and the "Reader's Raven" puzzles. So we manage to make the leap from YouTube back to the book after all.
What we like: Large selection of topics with recommended reading
- Simple and short text sections
- large selection of topics
- extra-large font
- with reading puzzles
- many pictures
- exact recommendation according to reading level
- recommended by the Reading Foundation
- With QR code for the Reader's Song
There are many more Reading Envy books, so there will be a topic for every interest:
Children's books
Ravensburger Readingabe - 1st reading level: A mammoth under the bed
German, Judith Allert, Betina Gotzen-Beek, 2023
Children's books
Ravensburger Leserabe - Pre-reading level: Lala, the babbling llama
German, Alexandra Fischer-Hunold, Catharina Westphal, 2023
Children's books
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 4: The Flute Scare (For Learning to Read)
German, Margit Auer, Nina Dulleck, 2022
Ravensburger Readingabe - 1st reading level: A mammoth under the bed
German, Judith Allert, Betina Gotzen-Beek, 2023
Ravensburger Leserabe - Pre-reading level: Lala, the babbling llama
German, Alexandra Fischer-Hunold, Catharina Westphal, 2023
The School of Magical Animals Investigates 4: The Flute Scare (For Learning to Read)
German, Margit Auer, Nina Dulleck, 2022
Big letters, small words, lots of pictures
The quintessence of the reading books is the same everywhere: large letters, short sentences with simple words and lots and lots of pictures. We found this in all the books and it definitely made learning to read easier for beginners. In addition, the suspense factor was more important than previously expected. If the content of the story is captivating, reading is all the easier. If, on the other hand, nothing unexpected happens, the sentences become torture and reading becomes more difficult.
I have only presented three of countless reading books here. There are reading books for different levels on almost every topic. For example, the "Why-Why-Why-Why" books for first-time readers also offer a wide range of knowledge topics. We want to test these next
Children's books
Ravensburger Why? Why? Why? First Readers, Volume 13: Environmental Protection
German, Carola of Boiler, Svetlana Kilian, 2024
Children's books
Ravensburger Why? Why? Why? First Readers, Volume 14: Robots
German, Annette new farmer, Sebastian Coenen, 2024
Children's books
Ravensburger Why? Why? Why? First Readers, Volume 9: Ancient Egypt
German, Sandra Noa, Peter Friedl, 2023
Ravensburger Why? Why? Why? First Readers, Volume 13: Environmental Protection
German, Carola of Boiler, Svetlana Kilian, 2024
Ravensburger Why? Why? Why? First Readers, Volume 14: Robots
German, Annette new farmer, Sebastian Coenen, 2024
Ravensburger Why? Why? Why? First Readers, Volume 9: Ancient Egypt
German, Sandra Noa, Peter Friedl, 2023
Which books have helped your children learn to read?
Science editor and biologist. I love animals and am fascinated by plants, their abilities and everything you can do with them. That's why my favourite place is always outside - somewhere in nature, preferably in my wild garden.