Simon & Schuster Henry and Mudge The Complete Collection (Boxed Set: Henry and Mudge; Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble

These are the cutest stories. This is the entire set of the Henry and Mudge series. The stories are realistic and heart warming. Beginning readers like that the stories are in short chapters. All Cynthia Rylant books are delightful.

My 7 year old loves them. He reads one book a day and cannot wait to read the next one. Each story is engaging to him and I love how the stories are simple and sweet. Highly recommend.

Cynthia Rylant is an award-winning author and this series does not disappoint. There seems to be a shortage of books with boys as central characters. This one was perfect. Our son loves it!

The good news is that the only thing this set is really selling is the books themselves. No tie-ins with giant corporate brands, television shows, etc. The characters have yet to appear on a box of cereal or develop a line of toys. When my child requested a particular brand of cheese based upon the appearance of characters from some discounted phonics readers we were using at home, I prioritized books with limited or no cross-branding. My local librarian was able to make some recommendations, and this series (Ready to Read from Simon & Schuster) was included within her list.Every book in this collection is structured at the Ready to Read series Level 2 from publisher Simon & Schuster. As such, the books all break their stories into chapters. The story length and sentence complexity is expanded from the Ready to Read Level 1 series. There is a very strong bias towards pairing each sentence or group of sentences to large, colorful illustrations. My little reader was able to make a very smooth transition from Ready to Read Level 1 books (I highly recommend the Robin Hill School book series) to the Henry and Mudge stories.I think it might also be helpful to consider this within the structure of another popular early reading series: the I Can Read series from Harper Collins. Ready to Read Level 2 from Simon & Schuster sits perfectly between the I Can Read Level 2 and I Can Read Level 3. As such, this could provide a smooth interim step between the reading levels of that series if this is something your little reader requires.There are more than a few publishers creating books for different reading levels (often with proprietary labels/categories). To describe where I think the Ready to Read series best fits allow me to expand some early reading categories with recommendations:Typically the most-entry level is meant to engage the child with picture-word associations. There are valid examples of this from most every publisher and even flash cards are a viable tool at this level. Get whatever works for you and your child!The next stage involves short stories with repeated sight words and/or sounds. Phonics readers are a common tool at this stage, and the selection is amazing. I ran into trouble here because I could buy branded sets for almost nothing (boxes of 12 books for around $1) but I then had to suffer the consequences (though I skipped them every time, I hated seeing the section of "Paw Patrol" words below the identified sounds and sight words listed at the beginning of each book). The Usborne phonics series worked well for my little reader, but there are great reviews online breaking out how different phonics reader series might appeal to different readers. If you shop these like I do, you try one or two out (if possible via the local library) then just commit to a set.The next progression tends to extend the sentence and story structure, demanding more focus and attention from the reader. This Level 1 book series from Ready to Read and I Can Read both follow this form, but I was particularly attracted to Ready to Read given the availability of the large Robin Hill School series: 28 books with 900 pages of diverse characters in a positive school setting with no obvious commercial branding.From this the progression to Ready to Read Level 2 has felt very natural and having a ready-made set of 28 books with 1120 pages has been successful with my little reader. The characters and settings lack the diversity of the Robin Hill series: Henry and Mudge is solidly middle-America. However, there are positive age and gender variations presented. Additionally, the stories not only incorporate bigger words and sentences but also manage to be more emotionally complex.Overall, I recommend this series highly as part of the overall process to extend the attention and interests of your young reader. The Ready to Read series Level 1 and Level 2 has arguably the best selections of content paired to predictable structure in that range of books where story and characters become more important than the vocabulary and phrasing on the page.Depending upon where my little reader takes me I can see using Ready to Read Level 3 books to explore special interest subjects (most of their best choices in this category are nonfiction) while migrating over to I Can Read Level 3 and Level 4 to continue the march towards true chapter books.

Well worth the money! My 2.5 year old boy LOVES these books. Cynthia Rylant writes the sweetest, most wholesome stories about a school-age boy, his dog and family. Excellent for teaching how to read. My son can’t get enough of them, and he’s thrilled he gets to hear so many new stories. Hours of fun.