The Magic Stories ~ A New TOS Review!!

Reading can be hard for many children. But when you find beginning reader stories that are full of good morals and character. while they also teach about those words that just don't fit the typical spelling rules or are just altogether difficult to learn and remember. That's what the creators at Allsaid & Dunn, LLC, publishers of The Reading Game and the authors of the Wordly Wise series,  have produced with their downloadable books called The Magic Stories.

This set of 6 stories include:

The color would depend on what you printed them on.

~  The Magic Hole
~  The Magic Ax
~  The Magic Joke
~  The Magic Hotdog
~  The Magic Book
~  The Magic Box
The books were designed for the 2nd/3rd grade student who has been reading for a while, but may still need some additional help to build their reading confidence. The books are fairly short, just 20 pages in length, with simple black line drawings occasionally to help break up the text. You can chose to have your readers enjoy them on their tablet or you can print them out and make them into booklets.

Along with the books each has a list of what they call the "Naughty 40" - the set of hard/difficult words in the story. You are told to print the cards (like flashcards) on cardstock and you can laminate them so you can have them work through them BEFORE starting to read the book. There are also 4 worksheets for each of the 6 stories. One of those worksheets is the pre/post sight word assessment worksheet. This has the list of the "Naughty 40" and you checkmark whether the child can recognize the word, read the word in a sentence (also on the flashcard), as well as understand it's meaning. Then once the story has been complete and you've been working on the flashcards daily you do the assessment again. Hopefully the second time they will have been able to checkmark more of the words. You could also use this list as your spelling list and within your handwriting so they are seeing it more often and really get it "in" their system.

The other worksheets include a story maze, finish the sentences, and imagine if. Lastly, there is another assessment which takes a portion of the story of 100 words so you can score their accuracy of reading. The story maze was one of our favorites. After you read the story you use it as a reading comprehension assessment. They have to read each sentence and decide if it is true or false. If they choose incorrectly then they have to mark one of the boxes. If they mark all 5 before they get to the end of the story they are encouraged to read the story again.

One of the best parts of these stories is that they are full of good morals and character. Those are the books that help lead to good discussions which then lead to wonderful memories attached to one's childhood. Where learning is tied to real life and you can apply what you are learning to your own life to make yourself a better person.

I have a 3rd grader so was my main "reader". BUT, he is still what I would call an emerging reader. Many of the words were much harder for him ... but they will help to stretch his abilities and build his reading confidence. We went through the stories at a much slower pace and are still working through them. He did really enjoy the maze as I mentioned earlier. He has really good comprehension skills. One thing is that you do need to read them in order. You can find out why by reading the parent/teacher guide.

I also had my younger daughter do some of the readings because she has struggled over the years with her reading. She was not happy to 'have to read something else', but once she got into the stories she really started to enjoy them.

My eldest daughter wanted to read them too (even though she's 14)! She does not like to be left out. She enjoyed the 'creative writing' portion where you had to 'imagine if' and 'finish the story' worksheets the best. I think one of them was becoming a new book!

I think The Magic Stories would be a perfect fit for your beginning readers whether you have used The Reading Game (check out our review of this product here) or not. The stories are wholesome and have good lessons, which is one thing we always look for in books. And at just $16.95 for the whole set, you really can't go wrong. Or you can buy them individually for $3.95. I'm sure you will be using the, over and over again whether you have one child or multiple. I'd encourage you to explore the other reviews written by other Crew members by clicking the banner below. You can also find Allsaid & Dunn, LLC on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.

They are also offering a 25% discount for all readers; just use the code "raisingreaders"!

And keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming giveaway!