We’ve had the absolute pleasure recently of reading a brand new series of fictionalised biographies of football stars this week! These books are wonderful for persuading any reluctant readers to have a go at reading. Written by Harry Coninx, a 23 year old football fanatic and amateur player, these books are accessible, interesting and exciting and definitely worthy of a place on your bookshelves! I’d go as far as saying these books have the potential to ignite a child’s love of reading.

Giveway

Before I get into the reasons why we loved these books (of which there are many!), I need to tell you about the giveaway we are doing! Excitingly we’ve been given the WHOLE series of these books (plus extra goodies including bookmarks, poster and worksheets!) to GIVEAWAY to one lucky person/school on social media. Head over to either our Facebook or Twitter here to find out how (terms and conditions apply, please read them here)

What did we like about the books?

• Tempt Children into Reading! – Half the battle with reading is tempting reluctant readers to pick up a book and have a go. Understandably, if a child or teenager finds reading difficult and has experienced difficulties when reading, they may state that they ‘hate books’ or ‘don’t read’. What’s fanastic about the Tales from the Pitch series is that they capitalise on the power of football stars! That is to say, that they cleverly tap into the fact that many children/teens love finding out about their favourite football stars, tempting them to open the books and have a go!

• Accessible but Age appropriate – My favourite thing about this series of book and many of the other titles by Ransom Publishing is that they are ideal for children/teens with lower reading ages than their chronological age. I witnessed so often as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENDCO) and Teacher, students refusing to read books that were at their reading age because they were ‘boring’ or ‘babyish’. I mean, how demoralising must it be for a young person to be given a book to read that’s clearly designed for someone much younger than them? And also, how dull must it be for them to read these? We really are doing them a disservice by giving them books that are designed for children much younger than them, potentially putting them off reading for life! Thankfully, Tales from the Pitch cleverly manages this, their books have content that’s age appropriate and interesting for the child’s age but the level of reading is lower. Tales from the Pitch are specifically designed for those with a reading age 9-10 but their ‘interest age’ is from 7 to adulthood.

• Engaging – These fictionalised biographies are exciting, interesting and a brilliant way to engage children and teens who love football! A wonderful way to learn about their footballing heroes and pick up a few useful football tactics on the way.

• Designed to be Dyslexia Friendly – Ransom Publishers are fantastic at making their books suitable for children with dyslexia. For example, in Tales from the Pitch the text is in a dyslexia friendly font, on cream paper instead of white and the length of the books is reasonably short at 120 pages.

• Whole Series – Another frustrating thing when trying to encourage reluctant readers, is that often you find a book that they like and make huge leaps with both engagement and reading progress…but then once you’ve finished it, you’re back to square one looking for another suitable book. What’s brilliant about Tales from the Pitch is there’s a whole series to go off, so once you’ve got them hooked on these books you’ve got lots they can still read. I’ve also discovered that there are even more players joining the series next year!

Find Tales from the Pitch on Ransom Publishers website here or on amazon here.