The Colossal Squid and Other Stories (Paperback)

Little Wandle Code ensures effective reading intervention in early KS3. It is an all-in-one, fully resourced phonics intervention and assessment programme, accompanied by 10 age-appropriate fully decodable anthologies and 3 workbooks, to support students who are not meeting age-related expectations when they begin secondary school.

The Colossal Squid and Other Stories is the anthology for the Start the Code pathway. It is designed for students who may be new to English or have SEND needs, little or no phonic knowledge.

The fully decodable anthology includes 18 texts for Units 4-9 in Start the Code. Each text has an introduction page which sets out the focus graphemes, tricky words, blurb, and a discussion question to engage students before they read the story.

The anthologies enable students to practise the code, broaden their vocabulary, develop comprehension, improve fluency, and motivate independent reading.

Designed to look like the books their peers are reading, the anthologies include:

• A variety of content: fiction and non-fiction, featuring a wide range of text types, genres, and well-known authors
• Levelled practice: stories with varied word counts, length and complexity to provide sufficient practice, flexibility and choice
• Appealing visuals: a range of illustration and photographic styles to motivate and engage KS3 readers.

The anthologies are fully integrated within the Code programme and are supported by teacher and text notes available from the Little Wandle Code subscription.

Catherine Baker is an editor, consultant and writer specialising in children’s reading development throughout the Primary years. She has worked in educational publishing for over 30 years, and has written over 50 books for children and teachers.

Jacqueline lives in London with her husband and two children, and the entire family are avid readers. Jacqueline has always read for pleasure and written for pleasure. When she was seven years old, she wrote her first ‘novel’ about a snowman. The teacher liked it so much she took it with her when she left the school. This has never been forgotten or forgiven. Jacqueline is a former Deputy Head teacher and currently working as an education consultant, helping teachers teach children to read. She has also written some nonfiction books and phonically decodable readers

Emily graduated with a degree in English in the early 90s and went to work for her family’s graphic design business. There she dabbled in graphic design, photo research, illustration and copyediting for educational books. After years of watching other people write books she decided she wanted to try to write her own, and has recently written several children’s fiction and non-fiction readers. Emily lives in a small village in the Cambridgeshire fens with her husband and their beloved dog, Rory.

Abbie Rushton has a degree in English Literature with Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. She has worked in book publishing for over 10 years – both as an editor and author – and has written over 40 early reading books. She lives near the Norfolk coast with her son and a lazy dog called Nia!

Jonny Walker spends his time writing children's books about mythology, trees and geese. If he is not doing that, he is probably in a school somewhere, shouting expressively about mythology, trees and geese. If he is not doing that, he is probably wandering around London drinking coffee. If he is not doing that, he is probably at home eating a mountain of cookies and singing songs from the 1980s until his neighbours hate him.