Horrid Henry's Royal Riot (Horrid Henry Early Reader) by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
Horrid Henry has always been popular in our house. Horrid Henry's Early's Readers will always hold a special place in my heart as the books that gave my son the confidence to break into chapter books. The Early Readers have thicker pages, less text per page, more illustrations and the illustrations are in colour. But in many cases they are the exact same stories found in the older children's chapter books. Once my son gained confidence with the early readers, he was able to move up the chapter books, and then the whole world of reading was opened up to him.
| Horrid Henry's Royal Riot (Horrid Henry Early Reader) by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Margaret Young
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| Summary: Horrid Henry's Royal Riot is a fun compilation of Horrid Henry Early Reader Books, in a lovely hardback edition with easy to read text and full colour illustrations. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 208 | Date: September 2013 |
| Publisher: Orion Childrens | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1444008531 | |
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Despite being 8 years old now, and a very confident reader, he still prefers the Early Readers, and especially this one. It may be the same stories, but the presentation is nicer. This is a lovely hardback book, well bound, with bright colourful illustrations and thick enough pages to prevent text and illustrations from showing through from the other side of the page. The text is large, well spaced and easy to read with plenty of paragraph breaks. This book combines four Horrid Henry Early Readers into one premium hardback edition, but as nice as it is, it may prove a disappointment if you already own the same Early Readers. This includes Horrid Henry's Thank You Letter, Horrid Henry Meets the Queen, Moody Margaret's School and Horrid Henry's Sports Day.
I would recommend this book for any fan of Horrid Henry. My oldest son read this himself at age 8, but my youngest enjoyed it just as much as a read aloud story, and when he is a little bit older, it will come in handy for him as he makes the jump from picture books to chapter books as well. Although this is an early reader, the superior illustrations make this worth considering for older Horrid Henry Fans as well. While Henry and Peter's treatment of each other is hardly a good example of brotherly behaviour, it does provide parents a chance to discuss things like sibling rivalry easily, and to encourage each boy to see the other child's side as well. I'm lucky that both of my boys get on very well, but I do feel books like this present several teaching moments. As an added and unexpected bonus - this particular book even led to my son wanting to learn more about Greek mythology. Horrid Henry gets its fair share of complaints from parents, but it does engage the children and keep them reading. Henry is not nearly as bad as he is made out to be, and I believe most parents could learn something from these books as well. They have certainly drawn my attention to the feelings of an older sibling on more than one occasion, and they also remind us that parental stereotyping of children often cements negative behaviours.
Billy's Opinion:
I have lots of Horrid Henry Books, but this is one of my favourites. I like this book because the colour illustrations are so much better than plain black and white ones in most of my books. I think hardback books are nicer as well, and I prefer the smooth white paper to the thinner pages in paperbacks. My favourite story is Horrid Henry's Sport's Day. The races all look really fun and I've asked my Mom if we can try some ourselves. I especially liked the egg race. It was meant to be with hard boiled eggs but Henry swapped them. Raw eggs look so much more fun though. If we do an egg race, it will have to be raw eggs. I liked where Henry threw sweets to win the race as well. We even looked up and read the Greek myth about the three Golden apples that gave Henry the idea to throw sweets. I would recommend this book for children who are still learning to read. Horrid Henry's Early readers really helped me when I was still reading picture books, but I still like them even now that I am older. Sometimes I don't want to read something challenging. Sometimes I like to read something that is easy and fun, and Horrid Henry is both.
We can also recommend:
Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire
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You can read more book reviews or buy Horrid Henry's Royal Riot (Horrid Henry Early Reader) by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Horrid Henry's Royal Riot (Horrid Henry Early Reader) by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross at Amazon.com.
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