; ;

Always Be Safe

To be honest, I’m not particularly a fan of the Rookie Ready to Learn series in general:  I find the activities in the back of each are often formulaic and only tenuously related to the story; each one ends by telling you someone’s version of what you just learned by reading this story (besides being patronizing, they often don’t hit the mark).  But if you do like this kind of thing, or you’re willing to ignore the extra features that don’t enhance them, the central stories are often good little stories, with redeeming qualities of their own. This one uses repetitive, rhythmic, rhyming text, supported by the illustrations to share safety tips with young children.  One concern to be prepared for is that the effort to stick with the rhyming pattern relies on some unusual use of vocabulary that may need to be discussed in order for students to understand the meaning (e.g. “Sit in your chair right, or you might get tossed”).