Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.
Rosie Watch - Editorial Expert
Rosie Watch has taken her childhood passion for literature from classrooms in Cusco to Chelsea. With over 30 years of teaching experience and hundreds of books later, Rosie is still as eager as ever to get her hands on her next tome. Alongside a career in education, Rosie has also raised three boys and is well accustomed to separating the literary wheat from the chaff.
While running various English departments in schools across the country, Rosie has also had the chance to meet and run workshops with many children’s authors and poets including Nigel Hinton, Roger McGough and Michael Morpurgo. A firm believer in the importance of a willingness to look beyond what we already know and embrace change, Rosie has, in her teaching, maintained that elusive balance between the sharing of best practice and having a few lesser known ‘secrets’ up her sleeve in order to keep both children and her fellow teachers engaged.
Latest Reviews By Rosie Watch
Frankenstein is a tale of a monster and his creator. Victor Frankenstein plays God by creating a life. However, the monster is ugly and unacceptable to society, and is banished by Frankenstein. Due to this rejection, the monster stalks him and harms or kills everyone who is close to Victor, both his friends and his family, and Victor can never be free of his creation. If the monster cannot be happy, then no one else can either, a tale of revenge and regret. Again, a story with a strong message. Be careful what you wish for. Who is the monster ... View Full Review
The Wizard of Oz has been written many times and most of us have seen a film or a play of this timeless story. Dorothy and her dog Toto are carried away in a tornado to the magical land of Oz. Here they encounter witches and wizards and make three special friends, a scarecrow with no brain, a tin man with no heart and a cowardly lion. Throughout the adventure, there is a strong message that we can overcome our fears, that we all need friends and good conquers evil.
This classic tale has been adapted for dyslexic readers, with ... View Full Review
Frankenstein is a tale of a monster and his creator. Victor Frankenstein plays God by creating a life. However, the monster is ugly and unacceptable to society, and is banished by Frankenstein. Due to this rejection, the monster stalks him and harms or kills everyone who is close to Victor, both his friends and his family, and Victor can never be free of his creation. If the monster cannot be happy, then no one else can either, a tale of revenge and regret. Again, a story with a strong message. Be careful what you wish for. Who is the monster ... View Full Review
The Wizard of Oz has been written many times and most of us have seen a film or a play of this timeless story. Dorothy and her dog Toto are carried away in a tornado to the magical land of Oz. Here they encounter witches and wizards and make three special friends, a scarecrow with no brain, a tin man with no heart and a cowardly lion. Throughout the adventure, there is a strong message that we can overcome our fears, that we all need friends and good conquers evil.
This classic tale has been adapted to totally embrace any ... View Full Review
This is the story of Luca, his family and his friends.
Luca is 12, not the perfect pupil, but with ideas of how he would like to see his life pan out as an adult, a boy with many mature and loyal traits. He wants to take over his family’s ice cream café, which is not thriving, but he has ideas. There is a recipe from his grandparents, which claims to be the best vanilla ice cream in the world and Luca believes if he can recreate this, the café will prosper. He even wins a competition ... View Full Review
This is a set of 10 phonic books written for older children needing phonic support. It is super to find a set of books that are age appropriate and not patronising or demeaning but are written in a mature and interesting way.
The books are written as a series with each book leading on from the one before. The set is called Hidden in Paris, beginning with the first in the series Fortune Hunters, and follows the adventures of a group of young people following a mystery trail to Paris.
The characters are an eclectic mix of characters encompassing different ethnicities ... View Full Review
You almost know this is going to be a beautiful book by its title. It is described as a Muslim book of shapes, but it is so much more.
I have to say I learned a lot from this book and was extremely glad of the informative and helpful glossary.
The book offers so much – history, shape and pattern, culture and colour. It is so clever that in addition to the different shapes written about on each page, there are more ovals, or arches to look for in the illustrations, subtly hidden in fabrics and the decorations ... View Full Review
A beautiful book before you even open it. It both feels and smells as you imagine a book should and is a pleasure to handle. The text, illustrations and design of each page is beautifully put together and welcoming. On every page, even those without illustrations, there are little sketches or symbols, or change in colour, to draw in the reader.
This is a book about books! A snapshot of literature throughout the ages, asking big questions such as how does literature work, how do stories help us understand life, what is reading really for?
It is a fascinating read ... View Full Review
Dandelion World is a new series of non-fiction titles within the Dandelion Reading Scheme.
This is a collection of very structured phonic reading with clear guidelines as to the focus of each book, and would work well with any current reading scheme. This set of books, unlike many phonic schemes, is truly phonetic and reflects the obvious input of dyslexic and reading experts.
There are 7 levels, each one with a set of books focusing on CVC words. There is a clear introduction, and at the back, there is a ‘knowledge builder’ based on the text. So, for example, &... View Full Review
This book is a punchy manual on ‘how to make school work for working class students’. It is written from a knowledgeable educational background and the two authors are passionate in the belief that working class children get less of everything in education and in life, including respect. They believe a working-class child starts the educational race halfway behind a middle class child. Whether or not you agree, the book is presented in a positive and convincing style. The authors confront the argument that a working-class child is disadvantaged by design and not by accident and that social ... View Full Review
This book is available directly from Crown House Publishing here
This book is all about the power of asking the right questions and using effective questioning to enable effective teaching. It is about the importance of questions being purposeful and used as a measure of demonstrating a pupil’s understanding.
The theme is in some way obvious, but Chiles, in his book, highlights what we as teachers, all sort of know, but rarely focus on to this degree.
The book is comprehensively set out into sections; - why we ask questions, how we ... View Full Review
A set of graded phonic reading books, each book focusing on a particular sound or phonic blend. They link to the much-used sound-write reading and spelling programme. Each book is part of a level, with various units within it. The sounds are clearly indicated on the back of the books, making it quick and easy for a teacher to match the book to the phonic programme being used, or the relevant blend being taught at that time. These books have been popular and well used in classrooms for nearly 20 years.
The stories are written by Tamar Reis Frankfort and Wendy ... View Full Review
-400x400.jpg)
