Laura Bunting on Ebb & Flo

A personal note from the author.

Philip and I have been through the learn-to-read process three times, with our three children.

We know how exciting it can be.
We know how challenging it can be.
And we know how boring it can be.

All of a sudden you go from the joy of snuggling up with a pile of beautiful, witty, engaging, adventure-filled picture books to read to your child, to suddenly struggling to stay awake as you plough through the dreaded home-reader pack each week. We’ve been there. It wasn’t the most enjoyable stage in our reading journey together.

And yet, it should have been.

We of course know that home readers and class readers serve a hugely important purpose. They are designed to guide your child step-by-step through the reading process. But what they make up in function, they often lack in fun.

As parents we had to work harder – MUCH harder – to make sure our kids still saw reading as FUN during this time. We had to work harder to balance out the dull-but-functional books with engaging-and-fun books that were also appropriate for beginner readers. Books that would help build their confidence with reading on their own. We found it surprisingly difficult to track down enough of these books, so we decided to create our own. That’s how the Ebb & Flo series was born.

We hope we have created a series that will bring joy and fun into your budding reader’s learn-to-read journey, keeping them engaged and inspiring them to want to read more.

A little note for grown-ups
These books are designed to grow with your reader. They can be read aloud to pre-schoolers to help familiarise them with the most common words they will be learning to read as they enter school, while even confident readers in Year 1 and beyond can further hone their reading skills by learning how to use expression and emphasis to best effect.

Pre-school
Read these books aloud to your pre-schooler as you would a picture book. Point to each word as you read, so your bookworm-in-the-making learns to associate the sounds you’re making with the words you are reading. There is no need to try to specifically teach anything concrete – at this stage reading together should just feel warm and snuggly and fun. But making subtle connections is helpful. The words in Ebb & Flo are carefully chosen to align with the majority of words kids start learning to read in their first year or two of school (decodable words, high-frequency words and common tricky words). Once your child starts school, you will have helped them become familiar with some of the most common words they will be seeing and learning to read in their first year.

First year of formal schooling
Once your child has mastered the basic foundational understanding of phonetics, and is starting to sound out words, these books are the perfect way to practise those skills, to build more confident and fluent readers. Initially they will need assistance with some words, but as they progress, they will soon be able to read the entire books independently, even if they do sound like the cutest little robot ever!

And beyond
These books get better and funnier the more confident your little reader becomes. Especially when it comes to expression. Your child may be able to read words fairly confidently, but many have been so focused on working out what the words are, they still need practice reading fluently and with expression. Learning to use expression and appropriate intonation to convey the right meaning is a really important part of the learn-to-read process. Each book in the Ebb & Flo series highlights ‘emphasis’ words in a bold font. This helps budding readers easily spot which words they need to put more emphasis on. For example: I want THAT one! Whether in the classroom or at home, these books offer a perfect opportunity to talk about emphasis, intonation and the importance of stressing the right words as we read.

‘Laura and Philip Bunting are the ideal pair to create an early reader series that sits comfortably between a fun-filled classroom reader and a joyous recreational read – Ebb and Flo is perfect for home libraries and classroom use. To have the artistic talent, gentle humour and clever storytelling of Laura and Philip Bunting in a series for new readers is a treat indeed! Ebb and Flo are the friends your child needs by their side on their learn-to-read journey.’

Megan Daley
Children’s Books Daily, and author of Raising Readers