Secondhand Early Reader (Age 4-7) Bargain Book Box SP4280

Secondhand Early Reader (Age 4-7) Bargain Book Box SP4280

Eighteen hardback early readers in excellent condition: four Paddington picture books with R.W. Alley’s paintings, seven Oxford Reading Tree Read at Home books in level order from 1a to 2c plus the First Dictionary, three Usborne Young Readings (The Tempest, The Secret Garden, Stories of Pirates), two Little Readers fairy tales, a First Readers Sleeping Beauty and a Ladybird Read It Yourself. The whole first year of reading in one box.

1. Paddington the Artist — Michael Bond & R.W. Alley — Paddington sets up an easel on the pavement and his pictures start selling for reasons he doesn’t understand. One of the short Alley-illustrated Paddingtons for the youngest readers, and the painting on his nose is the joke.
2. Paddington at the Zoo — Michael Bond & R.W. Alley — Paddington takes a packed lunch to the zoo and the animals take it off him, one marmalade sandwich at a time. By the end the elephant has the lot.
3. Paddington and the Busy Day — Michael Bond & R.W. Alley — Mr Gruber takes Paddington on a day out and Paddington manages to get lost, found, and into trouble at a bowling alley before tea.
4. Paddington at the Palace — Michael Bond & R.W. Alley — Paddington goes to see the changing of the guard and can’t see over the crowd, until a very important person notices the bear with the flag. Alley’s Queen is a treat.
5. Read at Home 1b: Silly Races — Roderick Hunt & Alex Brychta — An egg-and-spoon race, a sack race, and Kipper falling over. The Oxford Reading Tree characters every Australian school uses, at the first level.
6. The Tempest — Usborne Young Reading — Prospero, Miranda, Ariel and Caliban on the island, with the storm and the shipwreck. Shakespeare in forty pages for a seven-year-old, and Christa Unzner’s pictures are lovely.
7. Read at Home: First Dictionary — Oxford Reading Tree — Biff, Chip and Kipper’s picture dictionary, with the tree and the whole gang on the cover. For a child who’s just started looking words up.
8. Read at Home 2c: Ouch! — Roderick Hunt & Alex Brychta — Floppy the dog and a cactus. Level 2, the last of the Read at Home run.
9. Read at Home 2b: I Can Trick a Tiger — Cynthia Rider & Alex Brychta — Floppy dreams he’s in the jungle and outwits a tiger. Level 2.
10. Read at Home 2a: Super Dad — Roderick Hunt & Alex Brychta — Dad in a cape, and the things he can’t do. Level 2.
11. Read at Home 1c: Mum’s New Hat — Roderick Hunt & Alex Brychta — The hat blows away and the whole family chases it. Level 1.
12. Read at Home 1a: The Snowman — Cynthia Rider & Alex Brychta — Kipper builds a snowman and it melts. The very first Read at Home book.
13. Town Mouse and Country Mouse — Ladybird Read It Yourself Level 2 — Aesop’s fable: fine food and a cat, or crumbs and peace. The mice in waistcoats are Ladybird at its most Ladybird.
14. The Little Mermaid — Little Readers — The mermaid, the prince and the sea witch, with Christos Skaltsas’s bright, big-eyed pictures. The happy ending, not Andersen’s.
15. Sleeping Beauty — First Readers — The spindle, the hundred years and the prince, with Rebecca Elliott’s illustrations. A first fairy tale for a child reading alone.
16. Little Red Riding Hood — Little Readers — The wolf in grandmother’s bed. Skaltsas pictures, short sentences.
17. The Secret Garden — Usborne Young Reading — Mary finds the key, Colin learns to walk, and Dickon brings the robin. Alan Marks’s watercolours; the retelling that gets children to the real book.
18. Stories of Pirates — Russell Punter — Three pirate tales with a treasure map, a parrot and a walk off the plank. Usborne Young Reading, and the most-borrowed title in the series.