Monstar Finds A Home Early Reader Book Review

Monstar Finds A Home is this month's new release from Orion Books in the red Early Reader range for children aged around 5+. Written by Steve Cole and illustrated by Pete Williamson, it's a 72 page story about a fluffy green pet belonging to 2 children called Jon and Jen.

The red Early Readers are designed especially for children who might still want to read with someone else, but are beginning to feel confident and can work out words alone. They're the next step along from blue Early Reader books which are designed to be read together with a brand new reader.

My son is 5 1/2 and he's pretty good with the blue band books now and can work out most of the text that he hasn't already learnt, so the obvious step is to try red band.

The obvious differences are that this red Early Reader is laid out more like a standard book with chapters, there is more text on each page and longer and trickier words throughout, with less repetition than is found in blue Early Readers.

My son spotted the difference immediately and was a bit daunted by this book at first, but after we'd sat and read a page or two he was happier when his turn came to read as he'd realised it's just the same as his other books, only slightly more of it.

The story is a simple and fairly daft one. The two children Jon and Jen have mad scientist parents who have promised they can have a pet, so they make them one - Monstar.

Somewhat as you'd expect things don't entirely go to plan and it's Monstar who saves the day.

My 4 and 5 year old boys enjoyed this story and thought it was very funny. They liked the character Monstar - although they were stunned when they fond out she was female, which led to a big discussion about monsters and aliens not always being boys! .

Monstar Finds A Home is published by Orion Books and has an RRP of £4.99, Monstar The Superhero is also available.