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All summer long, the lazy cricket mocks the ant hard at work storing food for the winter, but when winter comes, he wants to be friends. By Betsy Sewell - 916 words -
A version of an Aesop Fable. How Mr. Frog tricks Mr. Rat to always win the race. By Betsy Sewell - 790 words -
How does a trained Search and Rescue tracker find a missing person? What signs do they see that the rest of us may miss? Told through the eyes of a tracker at work, as he reminisces about his own experience of being lost in this very forest as a seven-year- By Betsy Sewell - 2178 words -
As a cricket match progresses, the ball deteriorates. How do the best international bowlers exploit this to get a batsman out By Betsy Sewell - 2448 words -
A giant Pacific octopus finds itself stuck in the gullet of a blue whale. He muses on the strategies he has to avoid the real enemy, the sperm whale, but none of these help with this predicament. This is a level 4 book. The words octopus and whale are not mentioned, but there are enough clues to figure it out. By Betsy Sewell - 1816 words -
Children reluctantly go camping with Dad, but discover its joys and do not want to go home.
By Betsy Sewell - 413 words -
What sort of creature am I? The clues come, and the child must put the clues together to identify the creature. By Betsy Sewell - 1265 words -
Agnes the spider and Mrs. Smith live in the same house. When both have mothers coming to stay, the conflict begins. By Betsy Sewell - 623 words -
Gran comes to look after a child in bed with mumps, and explains about being sick in her childhood. By Betsy Sewell - 485 words -
A girl makes friends with a ghost trapped under her bed. By Betsy Sewell - 1006 words -
Boys build and furnish a hut in the plum tree, only to have it taken over by a possum. By Betsy Sewell - 804 words -
The story of the godwits’ incredible flight to the tundra in Alaska, and back to New Zealand. By Betsy Sewell - 938 words -
How the shag fishes, how it brings up its young, and how traditional fishermen in Japan trained shags to bring in their catch. By Betsy Sewell - 762 words -
A chest is found in the river. The children try many ways to retrieve it, expecting riches and treasure. In the end, they find something unexpected. By Betsy Sewell - 1005 words -
The story of a salmon, and her challenge to get past the (hydro) dam in the river to get to the spot where she must lay her eggs. By Betsy Sewell - 981 words -
Mum wants a new garden, and begins by taking the rubbish to the dump. But the kids have plans of their own for the garden, and find what they need at the dump. By Betsy Sewell - 830 words -
The story of the incredible little New Zealand robin. By Betsy Sewell - 1476 words -
The true story of Jack Simpson, who used a donkey to bring injured men off the field of battle at Gallipoli to the Red Cross tents on the beach. By Betsy Sewell - 1596 words -
Logging in mid-19th century Canada, its dangers, and using the ice on the tracks to bring the logs down. By Betsy Sewell - 1277 words -
Sequel to My Days in the Skidder Gang. The logs are stacked on a frozen river, and when the ice melts, the river pigs must ride the logs down the river to prevent tangles and log jams. By Betsy Sewell - 1645 words -
Ndotto is a tiny, premature baby elephant orphaned at birth. How the staff at the elephant orphanage care for him, and give him the skills to live as an adult in the wild. By Betsy Sewell - 1670 words -
Otters that have taken to living in the sea must live and raise their young quite differently to their cousins living on the land. By Betsy Sewell - 2611 words -
When Jin the Otter escaped from the (Auckland) zoo, the public, the police, the army were called in to help track her down. Her ability to evade them all gripped the nation. By Betsy Sewell - 1576 words -
Mum loses the jar of jam she has just bought, and it is found by one person in need of sustenance after another, until Mum finds it just where she left it, containing nothing but a fat slug with a single red foot. What does Mum think has happened? By Betsy Sewell - 1137 words -
The story reads as if a man is making his way to the summit of a mountain, negotiating the obstacles. But by the end, the reader realises that interpretation is quite wrong. By Betsy Sewell - 1395 words -
Who is this terrifying bearded stranger, and is he really as terrifying as he looks? Why does he choose to live like this, carrying his swag from farm to farm? What do his songs tell us about his life? A glimpse into social history through the story of one man. By Betsy Sewell - 2508 words -
Nessie the Loch Ness monster corresponds with Angus who lives by the lake. How can he possibly doubt her existence? Nessie spells her name Nessy, and calls her home a lake. By Betsy Sewell - 1328 words -
After the earthquake, the landscape is altered, and the map the trampers have bought in good faith is quite wrong. By Betsy Sewell - 731 words -
Mandy must tidy her room, and comes up with some very quick quick-fixes. By Betsy Sewell - 374 words -
How actually do you capture a snake basking on your deck? By Betsy Sewell - 1058 words -
What an absolutely fascinating little creature the limpet is! What ingenious ways it has of protecting itself against its enemies! By Betsy Sewell - 1018 words -
An underwater film maker befriends a huge manta ray, and follows her life. Many words with o_e and i_e By Betsy Sewell - 2337 words -
Based on a true event. A particularly difficult whale stranding, and what must be done to save them. By Betsy Sewell - 1390 words -
The incredibly complex social and farming systems of these ants. By Betsy Sewell - 759 words -
Jane and David become separated by war, and then spend most of a lifetime trying to find each other. When they finally do meet, will they recognise each other? And will the emerald pendant Dave gave Jane help track her down? silent e pattern,ee,ea,or By Betsy Sewell - 1847 words -
Libby was the first woman to win the grueling dog sled race across Alaska, and she did it by taking a risk, and putting the needs of the dogs ahead of her own. By Betsy Sewell - 1717 words -
The Aswan Dam has changed Egypt, but there have been some downsides. The story of the changes the dam has brought to Egypt, told from the point of view of those who live along the riverbanks. silent e pattern,ee,ea,or By Betsy Sewell - 1868 words -
How Adolf Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche collaborated to design the biggest selling car of all time. By Betsy Sewell - 1408 words -
The true story of a puppy rescued from the brink of starvation from a German army camp, who went on to become the most famous film star of his day. By Betsy Sewell - 1425 words -
From the gold fields of Central Otago. Finding gold is not quite as easy as the rumours suggest, and then when you do, that is when your problems really begin. By Betsy Sewell - 1404 words -
How do you escape from a heavily guarded World War 2 prison camp? When all else fails, build a glider and fly out! By Betsy Sewell - 2362 words -
A runaway slave makes his precarious way to freedom, not knowing who he can trust. And then he comes back to rescue his little family… By Betsy Sewell - 2521 words -
Who gets the biggest fright when you encounter a stingray – you or the stingray? By Betsy Sewell - 561 words -
The relationship between a man alone on a life raft, and the shark that arrives every evening to travel with him as he paddles to land. By Betsy Sewell - 2939 words -
Digging for coal in the days when dark tunnels were lit by candles attached to the miner’s helmet; and how to get the better of a mean and selfish boss. By Betsy Sewell - 2041 words -
Going on holiday with Dad to Mars. Mum says eat properly, sleep properly, clean your teeth and brush your hair nicely, but how actually do you do that in zero gravity? By Betsy Sewell - 2158 words -
Catching flying fish the traditional way, with flares and nets on moonless nights. By Betsy Sewell - 728 words -
Beaver dams and lodges are engineering feats. How the beaver creates its own habitat, for winter and summer. By Betsy Sewell - 1455 words
Structured literacy and decodable books
for older students