The Football Ghosts (Reading Ladder Level 3)

From the Publisher
Seamus loves two things-United and ghosts! So when he hears that the spooky old castle on the hill has ghosts playing football in it, he’s up there in a flash! Well, as quickly as he can go with his scaredy Granda in tow. Once they get into the castle, Seamus discovers that there are two teams kicking a ball around there-the 1948 United and Rovers cup final teams, doomed to play on until they hear the final whistle. And guess what Seamus has in his pocket? But first, there’s the chance to beat the Rovers, with Seamus the star striker in place!

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.