First reading book
A first reading book is a book that is a good first reading for children in the first grade of elementary school or elementary school .
First reading books have a very simple and understandable plot, are characterized by simplified language and deal with topics that appeal to children of this age (e.g. pirates, knights, Indians, football, school). They are well structured, often contain several short stories, but have fewer illustrations than picture books . The stories appear in large print , and the font used in school books is often used. First reading books are usually 20–40 pages long. There are also different levels of difficulty.
Many first-reading books appear e.g. B. at Loewe-Verlag (Leselöwen series), Arena Verlag (Bücherbär series) or Ravensburger- Verlag.
One of the first pedagogical concepts for first reading books was developed by Peter Conrady (University of Dortmund) in 1981 , today the concept is known as the Bücherbär Reading School. Since then, many Bücherbär books (Arena Verlag) have been published by various authors. The learning-to-read concept comprises five stages and is based on the idea of generating a sense of achievement while reading and promoting reading fun. The texts of the books at the first reading level are interspersed with images that replace nouns. The font is large, the text is divided into sections. In addition to pictures, little puzzles and questions about text comprehension are part of the concept of the book bear reading school.
In the autumn of 1981, the Hamburg-based publisher Friedrich Oetinger started its first series for beginners "Sun, Moon and Stars" with initially six titles, including a. by James Krüss, Astrid Lindgren and Paul Maar. The aim of the publishing house was to convey the joy of literature in addition to reading technology with texts by well-known authors, child-friendly content and many illustrations.
In 1995, under the didactic advice of Wilhelm Topsch, a second series was added for beginners: "Laterne, Laterne". In autumn 2002 an English-language series "Magic Lantern" followed with translations of first-reading bestsellers by well-known authors such as Cornelia Funke and Christine Nöstlinger; In 2004 a similar offer was launched in French with the "Lampion magique" series. (Both series are no longer active.) In 2013, the previous series were merged into the series "Book Stars", which is differentiated according to school classes, this in turn gradually from 2019 in the current series "Reading Starters", divided into three reading levels, with large primers, simple words and short sentences and a high proportion of images.