抄録
This paper is about 50 books from Random House's STEP INTO READING series, which consists of
5 steps or levels: Step 1 for preschool-kindergarten through Step 5 for grades 2-4. Because students' abilities
vary, younger students can access each step according to their level and eagerness.
Step 1 books are actually picture books with one or two simple sentences on each page. Children who
have learned the alphabet begin to learn to read with these books, likely guessing the story from the colorful
illustrations and reading aloud the rhyming, patterned sentences. The Poky Little Puppy, for example,
contains the following fun-to-read sentences. “Run, run, run! Roly-poly. Pell-mell. Tumble-bumble.”
Although Step 1 books may seem light on content, there are impressive masterpieces like Margaret
Wise Brown's I Like Stars and Raymond Briggs' The Snowman . Even Aesop's The Lion and the Mouse is included in this beginning level. The editors' priority, however, is to get the young reader interested in
reading whatever the book is. Using famous characters such as the Snowman, Sesame Street characters,
and P.J. Funnybunny (who appears in Step 2) seems to be an effective way to encourage. The results are
The Snowman and the Snowdog, I Spy: A Game to Read and Play, and P.J. Funnybunny Camps Out .
Step 2 is characteristic of nonfiction books like Bones (which explains how bones work in the body),
Feeding Time at the Zoo (which describes a zookeeper's job and what animals eat at the zoo), Planet Name
Game (which teaches about the sun and the 8 planets in the solar system), and The Statue of Liberty (which
tells how the iconic statue in New York City was created). While this may sound academic to young readers,
thanks to the authors' techniques and the illustrators' colorful pictures, these books are sure to spark a lot of
interest in unfamiliar things.
If students are interested enough, they can read Step 3 books on their own: Recommended fiction
includes Deborah Hautzig's Little Witch series (of which Little Witch Goes to School is the best) and Leo
Lionni's masterpieces (Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, Fish is Fish, and Frederick, the latter of which explains the usefulness of being a poet). The nonfiction counterparts are Dinosaur Days, Truth or Lie:Dinosaurs!, Trains!, Hungry, Hungry, Sharks! and Dolphins! , all of which are undoubtedly most children'sfavorites.
The person who has reached Step 4 can read Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, but for
some intelligent learners, history readers must be even more enjoyable: For instance, Discovery in the Cave,
Ice Mummy: The Discovery of a 5,000-Year-Old Man, Pompeii...Buried Alive! , Tut's Mummy: Lost...and
Found, The Titanic: Lost...and Found, all of which deal with great discoveries in human history. And the
true human stories of the Titanic are well worth reading, as is an amazing biography of Helen Keller:Courage in the Dark.
Students who have reached Step 5 can choose whatever they like by reading the advertisement on the back of the cover. For example, “One false step can send you hurtling down a ten-thousand-foot drop. One
wrong move can bury you beneath an avalanche of snow. You are climbing Mount Everest! Here is the true
story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay―the first people ever to reach the highest spot on the planet!”
To the Top! : Climbing the World's Highest Mountain is one of the best Step 5 books that avid readers
cannot miss, as is Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon both of which showcase the greatest feats of
human achievement in history.
