Each story in the Meg and Greg series has three layers of text: adult or buddy reader’s text, kid’s text and illustration labels. A story with multiple layers of text has several advantages for children learning to read at an older-than-typical age:
This text is the most complex of all layers in a Meg and Greg stories. It always appears on the left-hand page when the book is open to a story; you will notice the adult’s-head icon in the top left corner of the page. The adult or buddy reader’s text uses a fairly wide vocabulary and some phonograms and other language elements that the child has likely not yet learned, but the text avoids very difficult or unusual words. We have also tried to keep the sentences fairly short, avoid too many or complex metaphors, and avoid implied meanings. We included words with the target letter combination (phonogram) or concept as much as possible, and at each instance, the word appears in bold.
The kid’s text is much more tightly controlled. Starting at the beginning of the series, kid’s text is decodable for a child who has mastered the single basic consonants and short vowel sounds and is ready to learn and practise the letter-combination phonograms. This text is the one designed specifically for the 6–9- year-old students we wrote these stories for.
The kid’s text always appears on the right-hand page when the book is open to a story; you will notice the kid’s-head icon in the top right corner of the page. Story and chapter titles are also written in kid’s text.
The illustration labels are for a child just starting to read or feeling overwhelmed at reading sentences. These labels consist of single words or very short phrases and contain the story’s target phonogram as much as possible. A more advanced child reader who simply needs practice with the target phonogram can try reading all three layers of text in the story.
Any confident reader can be a Buddy Reader. We envision that people reading these stories together with a child will be:
The Meg and Greg Books approach with shared reading using multiple layers of text is not unique in the world of books, but we think our way of treating it is effective. We hope you and the child you’re helping along the journey to becoming a confident reader enjoy the Meg and Greg stories! We welcome your comments and ideas as we write more stories for shared reading. Please get in touch through our Contact page.
Happy reading!
