My Bob Books Review
I know that I am going to get some major flack for this post. After all, everyone loves BOB Books, right? Especially primary teachers and parents who want to help their child learn to read (which both can describe me). I might be in the minority here, but I have to be completely honest with you…
I don’t love BOB Books. I just don’t.
I have tried to get on board. I have Bob books Set 1 and Bob Books Set 2 and have used them with both of my boys. I even recommended them as a resource in my I Can Teach My Child to Read eBook with the caveat that they should be used in moderation.
The Bob books, however, were extremely frustrating to both of my boys. When I was first introduced to them a few years ago, I thought perhaps they were just too simple for Big Brother. He is the type of child that can see a word once or twice and remember it. Little Brother, however, is the exact opposite. Sight words are a struggle for him, so he relies heavily on decoding skills. They are two totally different learners, but they do have one thing in common: BOB Books frustrated them both to no end.
Big Brother was frustrated at the lack of a story line and Little Brother was frustrated by having to decode every single word on the page without a predictable structure.
Decodable Books
The premise of BOB Books is great: Present simple, decodable words in a book without the distraction of colorful illustrations so that children will learn to decode the words. My problem with BOB Books is this…children might enjoy the satisfaction of “reading” one of the BOB books, but I am not sure that they will instill a love of reading. When it comes to reading material for a new reader, I think it is always helpful to follow their lead (within reason). If your child gravitates towards one type of book over another, follow their lead as they build confidence in themselves as a reader. Some children might enjoy BOB books while others won’t (and either is perfectly okay).
When we aim to take a balanced approach toward literacy, most of the time we should be reading to our child so that he/she falls in love with the stories we read and the facts that he/she learns (when reading nonfiction). Even higher quality beginning readers should be used in moderation.
When BOB Books are helpful…
I still think BOB Books are a helpful resource for some children, for those that show an interest in them, for example. However, in my experience I have found that children will be much more successful reading books with repetition and a predictable structure. And believe it or not, I actually recommend that children read books where the illustrations help give away the text. After all, that is a strategy that good readers use when they don’t recognize a word!
Tips For Teaching Decoding Skills
If you have a child who is struggling to learn to read, work on decoding in isolation. I recommend making a Build-a-Word Tray for this task. Create a simple CVC (consonant-vowel-constant) word and ask your child to read it. Or alternate the activity and say the word, having your child find the corresponding sounds.
There are a lot of different ways you can utilize this tray, including a Real Word vs. Silly Words activity and having your child change only one letter (for example, asking your child to change the word “mat” to “sat”, then “sat to pat”, then “pat” to “pan”. This is a great phonemic activity as well
(Go here for directions on creating your Build a Word Tray)
Learning to Read Books
When looking to find books that your beginning reader can read, look for books with a predictable pattern. Your child might have to decode the first page or two of these books, but the remaining pages will repeat with a change to one word (which can be identified using illustrations). Reading books such as these will help build your child’s confidence as a reader.
I created a post with some of our favorite books for brand-new readers. Most of these books all have colorful illustrations and a predictable pattern in the text. You’ll even see BOB Books mentioned at the end, because I still think they can be a good resource for some kids (just not mine and many others I have taught). :)
This post was first published August 2015. Updated 2018.
Click Here for More Helpful Tips on Learning to Read:
10 Steps To Teach Your Child To Read
30+ Word Family Activities for Beginning Readers
Fun and Easy Sight Word Activities
If you are interested in learning about more tried-and-true strategies for teaching your child to read, check out my eBook I Can Teach My Child to Read.
I totally agree. My newest reader would not have anything to do with BOB books. She much prefers books that have meaning (and fun pictures!)
I am in total agreement!!! I’ve taught many kiddos how to read, and most of them fall into the 2 categories your sons did in relation to BOB books – there wasn’t enough context or there wasn’t enough interesting content. Plus, I just don’t think they’re the best books because they aren’t meaningful (and learning to read should be meaningful)!
YES, yes, yes! My oldest son would get SO aggravated by the meaningless story lines. He just didn’t get the point of them. And I agree that often these are not the best choice for brand new readers because it is just plain exhausting to sound out every word. That said, our middle son really liked the rhyming and word family sets. They are not what I used to teach him to read, but they are something he has used to get extra phonics practice. Definitely not for every reader!
My kids have liked the older reading textbooks, usually from the 1940’s -1950’s. I don’t know exactly why, but often the story line is a bit more interesting than in the newer books we’ve perused. We read books printed from every decade over the last 130 years, but the kids really like the illustrations and stories in the old texts. I have 3 kids with learning disabilities and have used BOB Books with each of them, since BOB is often one of the few books that uses such limited vocabulary and is very, very short. Since they struggled so mightily with decoding, anyway, a short and simple storyline was fine.
We are soooooo right there with you. After one or two my daughter said no more. We then just found things that worked in the early reader section. She liked this every so much better. I will have to check out that list of early reader suggestions though as we are about venture on to #2 learning to read.
A few years back the school I taught at used Bob books. I remember leafing through them, putting them in a file cabinet drawer and never opening that drawer again. I agree with much that you said above. I am now a reading teacher for k-2 students. Using pictures to solve words is something that is explicitly taught to young kids. Plus when the story is interesting and engaging they are much more likely to enjoy reading, and that’s what is most important. I greatly recommend reading a-z, it has great books at varying levels and great resources to go with the books. You can also enroll your child in razkids, which I’ve not met a kid who doesn’t love it yet. Creating life long learners starts with teaching a love of learning, something Bob books missed (in my opinion)
I’ve taught kindergarten for more than 20 years, and I’ve never had a student who wasn’t bored to death or completely puzzled by BOB books and other similar decodable books. They are, by design, stilted and contrived and make reading drudgery. There are so many better ways to teach early phonics, and I’m glad blogs like yours exist that give parents fun alternatives to decodable books. Thank you!
My son is 5 and is learning to read beautifully with Bob’s books. Each child is so different!
Check out Home Grown Books!!! They are beautiful and content rich. Love your article.
Agree. I used Bob books for my boys, found them too boring and the drawings were annoying to me.. lol
As a retired K-1-2 teacher I agree completely with you. I have never liked Bob books. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
I agree with you that every child is different and my oldest son liked Bob books, my youngest not so much. As a k-1 teacher, it can be hard to find a variety of on level texts (I have thousands of books) so it is just one more resource for kids.
Although I see your point, I do disagree. Yes, the storylines make no sense and the illustrations are terrible but I do not use these books for awesome plots and graphics. I have my daughter (currently in Pre-K and going to K in August) read 1-2 Bob books a night for the phonics practice. I usually find that after two books, she is done! But, my husband or I will read a “fun” book to her before bed. These books allow my daughter to practice decoding since she is not a fan of flash cards. At the end of the day, it’s a good feeling knowing that she will enter Kindergarten knowing how to read basic sentences-far ahead others who are still learning the alphabet.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Stephanie! I say if your kiddo doesn’t mind reading them and it doesn’t interfere with his/her enjoyment of reading, then I’m all for them. But in my experience with both of my boys and many kids that I taught is that I found better options to engage my kiddos. But to each their own! :)
What books do you recommend instead?
I actually like Bob Books, but see where you are coming from. I teach special education and use Bob Books with the Sound Partners program. Using both of these together has been very helpful for my students. I agree that these books may not instill a love of learning for all, but my special Ed students are getting excited that they now have books in their book bags that they can read.
Your “our favorite books for brand-new readers” link in the Learning to Read Books section does not lead to the correct page. Instead it leads to your post on talking to kids about pornography (https://www.icanteachmychild.com/how-and-when-to-talk-to-your-child-about-pornography/). Thought you might like to update that!
Just so you know, your link to “our favorite books for brand-new readers” goes to a different link on your site that doesn’t match up
Ha, just noticed the commenter above pointed out the same thing!
Yikes! Thanks for letting me know. Just updated. :)
Bob books were what helped my boys become confident decoding words between 4 and 5 years old. I definitely took a balanced approach – read to them an hour (or more!) every night, switching between books oriented toward each of their age levels. I started interactively reading with Eric Carl’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, Polar Bear and Panda Bear, Panda Bear (each book in the series gets a little more challenging) at around 18 months – 2 years. With these books it was largely pictures, repetition and rhyming that helped them at this stage. I believe these books allowed them to take small risks without having to be afraid of failure if they missed something, then allowed them to gain confidence to move forward through the book. And we didn’t just read them straight – we would take turns saying different parts of the book, I would point to pictures and they would name the animal. We mixed it up and did it in different orders… it was so much like a game.
When my oldest son was 4 he started kindergarten and he actually didn’t really know his letters yet. He had decided that he wasn’t interested in the alphabet at about 2.5 yrs, so I pulled back, not wanting to push him and lose his love of books. I just kept up our daily reading (incorporating lots of books with rhythm and rhyme). While visiting his classroom and talking to his Montessori trained teacher, I learned about Bob Books and went to buy our own set for home. We ended up playing the same sort of pattern recognition and decoding games that he had with the Eric Carl books. I would cover pictures, turn the pages out of order. It worked – the story didn’t matter if we were playing games with it. He was reading before he turned 5 that November – so in less than 3 months after starting kindergarten.
My younger son did take longer to learn to read, but once he got it, he got it. I actually figured out he could read one day when he started reading street signs out loud as we drove past, so not only was he reading, he was processing that information quickly.