Reading material for children at the very first level needs to be bright and familiar and the structure shouldn’t impinge on the enjoyment of the story. The books in the Longman Book Project Beginner 2 pack achieve this.

The books lead on from the Beginner 1 pack, with seven new words. The packs are an introductory step towards the Early Years Fiction module and gradually build up sight vocabulary.

The four children in the story, Ellie, Kofi, Jake and Megan, share the same birthday and the big book, Special Friends, sets the scene for the other stories, with the children each choosing a toy in the toyshop. The books are illustrated in a bold and colourful style by Adrienne Geoghegan, with text and teacher’s notes by Wendy Body. Each book has a Word Wall at the back to check children’s recognition of individual words. They are sturdy and produced with a strong card cover.

All the teacher’s notes for the Longman Book Project are comprehensive and those for this pack are no exception. The book contains a section with notes for each book and copy masters, for general use and for individual books. There are suggestions for discussion activities, a section which focuses on the words used in the books and ideas for further work. Photocopiable sheets at the back encourage children to make small replica books to take home.

This pack would be useful for those who prefer to begin teaching reading by using books with a high degree of sentence and word repetition or for children who need a structured introduction to the vocabulary in the Fiction 1 books in the Longman Book Project.