Nicole Digs A Hole

My daughter is learning to read by herself. Not only does she pretend to pronounce words by making the phonetic sounds of only the FIRST letter, but she also makes up the story for herself by looking at the pictures. It can be quite hilarious but to encourage her, I will say she's doing a superb and excellent job at reading. More often than not, I'm rewarded with an even more creative interpretation of the next page and her self satisfied smile. :) I remember having Read-It-Yourself books when I was little and I wondered if these books were still around. Although it's still available I didn't get the exact same series because it wasn't what I was looking for. Instead I found this Start To Read series which was perfect for my daughter. I got the book Nicole Digs a Hole from this series.

This story is about Nicole, who digs a hole in her backyard. After she digs the hole, she puts a sign that says "Nicole's hole" and then gets called away into the house. While she's away, a mole comes out of the hole and finds that the hole Nicole dug was much too big and bright for it. It decides to cover the hole. When Nicole returns, she discovers her hole missing and claims that someone stole her hole. She then starts to dig another even bigger hole. And so the story ends with a rhetorical question "The End (or is it?)".

While the story is simple, it requires the child to understand 2 rather complex concepts:

1. 
   
   That holes can't be stolen. Therefore to understand the humor in the situation when Nicole claims that the hole was stolen.


2. 
   
   That the rhetorical question at the end of the story suggests that the episode between the mole and Nicole has not been resolved.

How does the book help the child improve reading skills?

1. 
   
   This book has simple sentences which makes reading enjoyable. The child gets a taste of achievement at having completed reading a sentence quickly.


2. 
   
   Repetitive sentences help familiarise the child with simple words like "dig", "hole" and "it's".


3. 
   
   The child learns new words in an indirect way through using words that have similar endings such as "whole", "mole", "Nicole" and "big", "dig". Although the words are not written to rhyme in the story, it works on the same principle. It lets the child who is experimenting with making consonant sounds realise that he is using new words by changing the first sound and retaining the rest of the word.


4. 
   
   The illustrations have words in them as well. For example the sign that Nicole places over the hole she has dug. This makes reading fun. The child can read texts within the picture as well as the conventional sentences written in a story.

What did we do after?

• 
  
  Checked 'what is a mole' since my daughter wanted to know more about the creature and why it kept closing up Nicole's hole


• 
  
  Learnt why a mole doesn't like big holes and bright light


• 
  
  Tried to recollect a fairytale which has a mole in it. Do you know which one? Here's a hint: She's the size of a thumb.

I had so much success with this book and getting my daughter to advance her reading effort, I think I'm going to find more from the same series.