A collection of four books has just been published by Wise Owl Publications. These were written by Rosanne Caruana Buttigieg and illustrated by Stephanie Caruana. The books, available both in English and Maltese, are called The Boat Ride (Dawra bid-Dghajsa), The Frogs and the Fish (Iz-Zringijiet u l-Huta), The Clown’s Bad Dream (Il-Holma Kerha tal-Buffu) and The Horse, the Hen and the Cock (IZ-Ziemel, it-Tigiega u s-Serduk).

They include adventurous and humorous stories about funny characters that children will surely love. The text is accompanied by colourful pictures that will stimulate the children’s imagination and bring their stories to life. Completing the books are games and exercises found at the end of each story that the children can work out on their own or with the assistance of their parents. The objectives of the games and exercises are to improve the children’s reading skills and grammatical abilities.

It is often the case that some children will learn the text by heart without actually sounding out the words. With this in mind, the author has included a list of the key words used, after each story. This will help parents or teachers to determine whether children can read or not. The list is presented as a game in which the children will search for 5-lettered words and so on.