Trailblazers

Interest age 8 – 14 years | Reading age 6 – 7 years

Get the facts and read a story all in one book! A fascinating fact-finding section is followed by a story which appears on two parallel ability levels – allowing access for the poorest of readers.

Featuring full-colour images, beautiful illustrations and lively, engaging layouts, the books cover high appeal topics that kids just love to read about.

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Series contents

36 reading books,
plus 12 photocopiable workbooks

Authors

David & Helen Orme

"Boys in particular prefer street credible non-fiction and are drawn to the visual information. The fiction story is an unexpected bonus and a great way to encourage further reading."

Victoria Crivelli, Worcestershire Learning Support Team

"Though the language is accessible, the topics addressed in the Trailblazers books do not undermine the maturity of the reader!"

Literacy Consultant, Berkshire

From Vampires, Dinosaurs and Formula One to Fashion and Body Art, the Trailblazers series is bound to offer a topic that will engage and motivate even the most reluctant and struggling of readers.

The Trailblazers books kick off with a fascinating fact finding section, making use of simple non-fiction conventions. The text is broken up into lots of manageable sections, often in the form of bullet points or captions. The pages feature lots of full colour photographs to illustrate the points being made in the text. These colourful and eye-catching layouts vary from page to page so that readers with low attention spans will be constantly engaged with new information, formats and colours.

The second half of each book is devoted to a topic-related story. For boys that often prefer non-fiction, the Trailblazers format is designed to encourgage them to read fiction.

The fiction story caters for two parallel ability levels. A simple text appears opposite a beautifully illustrated full colour ‘speech bubble’ version allowing access for the poorest readers and making it ideal for buddy reading sessions.

The series will appeal to older children, either with a low level of literacy or who are learning English as a second language. The vocabulary is carefully controlled, with simple sentences and the use of repetition to reinforce reading skills.