Ella and Olivia #14: Spelling Superstar product reviews

Our family love the Ella and Olivia series and this book did not disappoint us at all. Miss Eight read this very quickly and enjoyed it but she has moved on to the Ella's diaries so was quite happy to pass this on to Miss Seven who is more at the age this is aimed at.

Firstly these books are perfect for the emerging reader as they are chapter books but are large print and each page or two has a small black and white illustration. Miss Seven is starting to be able to read these books herself but we have read this together and both love it. I love this story on so many levels. Ella is chosen to compete in a spelling programme on elevision and her younger sister olive helps her to prepare (with some help from mum and dad. Ella gets better and better every day with her spelling and even though Olivia is little and is still not able to get much past the first letter in a word she is incredibly supportive of Ella and encourages Ella right up to the Television recording day. Its a team effort and is such a sweet story of sisterly love and support. I love the focus on spelling as well and the message that if you keep practicing you will learn lots of words. Great encouragement for the spelling homework.

I will be reading this many times to my girls in the hope that such lovely sisterly support is practiced by them also! I can definitely recommend buying this and at $10 its a perfect gift for a young reader.

My eldest daughter has been enjoying the Ella and Olivia book series for about two years now. She likes the relationship the two sisters has and hopes that her own sister and her will continue to be close like that as they grow. I got to read Ella and Olivia's Spelling Superstar twice this week. This is because my youngest is starting to demand to be treated as a big girl. So she chose this book to be her bedtime story for the week.

This book is a chapter book and would suit an early reader who can confidently read with help or without. There are five chapters which means they might need to use a bookmark. We had to use one over the week, as I read a chapter each night to Miss 3. She sat next to me on the bed, and watched me trace the words as I read. It was good wind down time together and I got lots of snuggles.

On the first night, she was excited to look at the illustrations. The pictures are black and white, and the style is a bit like a colouring book. She pointed excitedly at the first pictures and asked if she could get her felt tip pens. She was quite disappointed when I said no, until the next illustration came along which caused her to ask again. Eventually she realised that this was not a colouring book, and we talked about books and being respectful of them.

While she enjoyed the story, it went over her head for the most part. While she was having a nap today, I sat down with my eldest and read her the whole book. It was about 30 minutes and she sat listening to my voice and resting her eyes. Afterwards I asked her what she thought of the story. She said that it was really, really good. She liked finding out a little bit about what goes on on a TV show. She liked that they talked about the lights and the make up.

She also liked the spelling. She is doing a lot more spelling this year and it's something that she is growing her confidence in. So she related to that a lot. I also think that Ella's nerves about getting things wrong, and the way she practices was really good to read through. It's a process of getting better and better at something, and sometimes I think it is too easy to see others are good at something, without seeing the work that went into it.

So for us this book worked really well for one kid, not so well for the other. But she was outside of the age group I believe this is aimed at. Another great book in the series and so quick to read and re-read. I'm sure we will be reading it again and again, just like the others in the series.