This is another winner from Margaret Hillert. It will be great for Valentine's Day, but it would also work for teaching colors--red in this case.

Excellent book for kids in any season. I love their collection of books and the end of the book focused on fonetics.

The Dear Dragon series is made up of several books that are easy readers. They use site vocabulary that is printed in the back of the book (57 words). It reminds me of the books I learned to read with.

In I Love You, Dear Dragon, the author focuses on Valentine's Day, specifically the colour red. They see and recognize cardinals (a red bird), red school, red lights and red apples. When they receive a Valentine's Card in the mail, they make their own cards, decorations and valentine cake. Dad reads them a story about Valentine's Day before bedtime.

These Beginning-to-Read books capture the imaginations of beginning readers and help them on their way to independent reading. These stories use repetition to reinforce vocabulary and sight words. They could also be read aloud to young children who are not able to read yet. The books, written in 1950 have been updated with colourful, more up to date illustrations. The back of the book gives suggestions to develop vocabulary, phonetic awareness, fluency and comprehension to parents or caregivers A great addition to a family library or a primary classroom.

“I Love You, Dear Dragon” is set up to be a great book for young readers. The pictures are bright and clear, and the sentences are repetitive. We go on an adventure through the town, seeing all of the things that are red. So, on top of reading, we’re learning a new color!

I tottered on what to rate this one. While it is a good setup for young minds to learn to read, it wasn’t very interesting. There are a lot of books out there these days that have sight words, and repetitive sentences, while maintaining a sense of humor both the kids and parents can enjoy. This one was very reminiscent of the old “Dick and Jane” books: See Dick run. Run, Dick, Run. As an example of this, here’s a quote from a page where they’re eating cake:

This is good.
Good, good, good!
We like it.

There’s no real storyline here to captivate young minds. It’s all about the words. I like to sometimes have my daughter recap the story we just read, and you can’t really do that here.
The word exercises at the end are for sure an added bonus. I love this sort of thing.

All in all, this story felt like one of those books a teacher would torture us with back in school, not something you’re excited to read before bedtime. I might suggest it to those under 3 or 4, as my 5-year-old wasn’t too excited about it either.

**I was given a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for a review**

Synopsis

A boy and his pet dragon enjoy winter activities and prepare for a very merry Christmas. This book uses high frequency words and repetition, within the book so that the readers gain confidence as they read the book. The student really enjoy the every day experiences with a boy and his imaginary pet dragon. There are educator resources which include reading reinforcement activities and a word list in the back. The activities focus on foundational, language and reading skills, in addition, the resources include phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. There are teacher notes available on publisher's website which will help with the lesson planning and small groups.





Summary and rating of 4.7

This series was first introduced to me in 2014. It was one of the first books I reviewed and I have really enjoyed them. I have read them to my students who have really enjoyed them. The illustration, text and addition pop up words are really wonderful. I highly recommend this book.

Kids will enjoy naming things that are red while reading “I Love You, Dear Dragon."