Press Play (Reading Ladder Level 3)

From the Publisher
Nicky, Tasha, and Joe’s mom leaves for work early one day and she leaves instructions for them on a cassette-player-all they have to do is press play! Nicky and Tasha must get themselves ready for school and get baby Joe ready for playgroup without waking Dad! They have to get dressed, make porridge for breakfast, and find Joe’s toy rabbit. Then they have to creep into Dad’s bedroom and set the alarm clock for him. But it is very hard to get ready quietly, especially when your baby brother is crying for his toy rabbit!

Red Bananas
These would suit NC level 3 readers, second class ages 8 to 9
Reading challenges and support offered by the books:
These books offer longer stories than the Blue Banana books. The stories are divided into chapters. This structure will support children’s understanding of how to read longer books.
The chapter structure also allows children to think about how chapters begin and end. Stopping to think about this, talking about what has happened in the chapter and what might happen in the next will also help children’s understanding of story shape and support both their reading and their writing.
Within the chapters, stories are paragraphed, another development from the Blue Bananas. This will again help children to chunk up their reading and make sense of longer units of text. They may need to be taught how to do this.
The stories increase in complexity within this strand of the series. Some stories (like Dragon Boy by Pippa Goodhart) demand that children empathise with a character who is different. Some stories (like Press Play by Anne Fine) include different kinds of texts within the main texts, which places extra demands on children who have to recognise the different ‘voices’.
The language within the books becomes more literary. As well as similes and word play, there is also lyrical description. Some children may find this more difficult to read, but can be encouraged to use the descriptions to create images in their heads, and may also be encouraged to think about the choices and intentions of the writer.