Very Easy True Stories: A Picture-Based First Reader

Can't say enough positive things about this book and this entire series. I bought True Stories by chance last year and ever since I've slowly been buying every level.I sent for this level two months ago, a bit concerned because I really had no idea, of how the author had laid the story out. Needn't have worried. The one or two sentence captions under each of the picture frames are so clearly illustrated that virtually any student at any level can figure out what's going on. I have a nine-year-old student who is finally motivated to read and a mature adult student who normally has terrible difficulty understanding new vocabulary, who takes great pleasure in being able to figure out new words without having to ask for a translation.The vocabulary is repeated and then the story is printed again, in paragraph form, with an actual photograph of the hero of the chapter. The exercises following the story are well-thought out and very useful. I'm ready to get the sequel to this level - All New Very Easy True Stories. Hopefully the author will make a third book - or by then my students will be so skilled that we can go on to the next level!!!What an incredible resource this is!

This book is good for adults with very limited reading skills. I use it with an ESL student and he likes the way the stories are introduced (one sentence + one picture at a time). After he has mastered that step, he moves on to seeing the whole story again in paragraph form.There are some good, challenging exercises with each story. The best part is that the stories are true and interesting. Recommended.

I used this series for years to teach ESL to adults and high school students. I loved all the books in the series. The lowest level books were great because of the repetition!! Kept the students interested in the stories. They were always a good stepping stone to conversations. Great exercises to review the grammar and vocab at all levels!!

I just started using these stories in my classroom and they are fantastic! My class level is intermediate beginner. The stories are funny and interesting and written very basically. There are also pictures to go along with the story in order to help the ELL understand better. After the story, are a couple pages of written exercises in which the student can answer questions about content, review vocabulary, and practice writing and discussing parts of the stories. I highly recommend this to those that have a hard time finding reading content for beginner ELLs.

The stories are taken from newspaper articles and present short human interest stories. Each story has a photo( to get ideas flowing), pre-reading exercise, 1 page story, and several exercises (vocab, comprehension check, and discussion). There are several levels in the True Stories series and my classes always seem to enjoy working with stories in the news.These stories also stimulate discussions on real current events in the news.

Not what I expected for the price. This is a very thin book and everything inside the cover is in black and white - nothing in color.

A fabulous book for beginning English-language learners. No translation is needed, for the pictures tell the story. My students (all ages and grades and countries of origin) love reading this book, even after they've become proficient in English.

This book is a good idea for beginning English language learners, but it is a very thin book. $23 new is absurd. If you can't buy one used for half of that shipped, look elsewhere. The free National Geographic ebooks for beginning readers also might fill this bill nicely. The exercises at the end are very predictable; here is no higher level thinking required.

I use this book to teach ESOL student in elementary classes. They really enjoy putting the pictures together in groups and then and sharing different versions of the story.

I came across True Stories series around 2005. I reckon they are excellent readers for ESL learners. Very Easy True Stories is the very first volume of this series and is perfect for absolute beginners. Although it’s easy readers, the writer’s style is amazing. Very impressive.

I would recommend this product to beginning readers as it has many pictures and is great for working on predicting.

Excellent and efficient.

わが子、小学3年生のために購入しました。絵本はもう読もうとしませんし、かと言ってマジックツリーハウスシリーズは難しかったので、どれも実話で興味をひきながら読み進められるごく簡単なストーリーブックを探していましたので丁度良かったです。とくにストーリーの場面がひとコマずつに区切られたページがお気に入りです。イラストで描かれたひとコマ１〜２センテンスなら絵本のようで簡単に感じられます。それが１０〜２０コマにもなり次のページではコマをはずしてほんとうの写真とひとかたまりの長文になります。同じ文でもちょっとした新聞の記事を読んだような完結感、満足感があると思います。というのは私の感想です。もっとも娘はひたすらコマ読みと写真が楽しかったようです。