Phonics Comics: The Fearless Four - Level 2 Paperback – March 2, 2007

My son loves this book because it made him laugh. He doesn't like to read and it was a big hit!

It's very difficult to read as there is narration blocks along with dialogue blocks, so you have to use different voices to even have the story make sense to a child. There is no use of contractions, which ruins the flow of the book, especially when you're using it to help teach a child to read. That's just not practical. We don't speak without contractions and we don't normally write without them unless it's formal writing. Overall, very unimpressed.

My son has been having some troubling getting the hang of this reading thing, and it didn't help that he wasn't overly interested in what he was reading.He had been eyeballing my comics and I figured it was worth a shot. So we looked around and found the phonics comics. He actually likes to read them, and reads them without poking and prodding and he even reads them on his own.The fearless four are four "super" heros that fight crime on the playground and around town. They battle stinky opponents and magentized mouth guy, they give wedgies and and are awesome.

This book contains 3 stories about 4 kids who are the Fearless Four. One uses gum (named Gum Bo), one uses yo-yos (named Yo-Yo Girl), one uses his undies or gives wedgies (named Wedgie Boy), and the fourth whines all the time (named Whiner). The first story is about how the 4 kids defeat a bad dog run loose using their "super" powers. The second story is about how they defeat a ball hog whose taken all of the balls in the neighborhood. The third story is about a stinky sock boy who wants to take over the town. The Fearless Four wash the sock to get rid of the smell. This book quickly became the favorite of my daughter (4 years old), who normally reads Dora and Disney Princess books. Apparently the characters and story lines appeal to her. I'm not thrilled with Wedgie Boy and Whiner.Two other downsides: In less than a week, the book pages have started coming out. I've had to tape them into the book. The binding is very poor. Granted, she read them several times a day, but none of our other books have fallen apart as this one has. Secondly, there are no apostrophes used in the book, which makes for oddly sounding sentences for a beginning reader. For example, when Yo Yo Girl asks, "Yo! What do we do now?" Wedgie Boy responds, "Do not look at me!" Other examples: "Let us go!" "That is it!"Not ideal characters to teach lessons, but a good book to entertain and get kids to read.

I purchased this book for my grandson. He is a beginner reader and he loved the humor, the stories and the fact that he could read it himself. He shared it with a friend and the other six year old boy enjoyed it as much as my grandson. I would highly recommend the phonic comics books for children who are not interested in reading.

My 5 year old and his cousins enjoy this book and the other phonics comics. They want to read these over and over. The only problem we have is the kids deciding who is going to play who in the drama they produce with each reading.