Dubai From the Sky

by Rob Alcraft

Published 8 April 2015

Collins Arabic Big Cat is a guided reading series for ages 3 to 11. The series is structured with reference to the learning progression of Arabic at nursery and primary schools researched especially for Collins. This carefully graded approach allows children to build up their reading knowledge of Arabic step by step.

Level 11 books provide more literary language, more complex sentence structures and less support from illustrations. Characters are more varied, with action sustained over several pages. Non-fiction titles include glossaries where necessary. Sentences are still short for better understanding. However, grammatical vowel endings are more evident to encourage fluent reading and to provide familiarity with some higher-level features of written Arabic.

A history of Dubai, told through stunning aerial photos.

Forty years ago, Dubai was a small port. Today it is one of the most visited cities in the world, home to the world’s tallest building and hundreds of manmade islands. This is the remarkable story of its rapid growth, told from the sky.

Check comprehension and embed learning with a reader response spread on pages 22–
23.


Everest Ice Climbers

by Rob Alcraft

Published 22 September 2017
Build your child's reading confidence at home with books at the right level

Join an expedition climbing Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. From Base Camp to the summit, find out what to wear, what to take with you and how to survive!

  • Emerald/Band 15 books provide a widening range of genres including science fiction and biography, prompting more ways to respond to texts.
  • Text type - An information book.
  • The book is organised into short chapters to help children practise the skills of locating and identifying important information.
  • The glossary and index can be used to develop children's information retrieval skills further.
  • Curriculum links - Geography

Four-Desert Challenge

by Rob Alcraft

Published 21 September 2015
Build your child’s reading confidence at home with books at the right level

Find out all about one of the worlds’ toughest running challenges, as racers compete for 28 days covering a distance of over 1,000 kilometres in some of the wildest and loneliest places on Earth, in the ultimate endurance event.

  • Ruby/Band 14 books give increasing opportunities for children to develop their skills of inference and deduction.

How to Capture a Castle

by Rob Alcraft

Published 10 January 2022

Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available.

All you need to know about capturing a castle, with lessons from 700 years of castle-capturing history.

Lime Plus/Band 11+ books provide challenging plots and vocabulary as well as opportunities to practise inference, prediction and reading stamina.

Pages 46 and 47 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall.

Ideas for reading in the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities.

Rob is a dad and he writes books. He works hidden away in an upstairs room so he can get some peace and quiet, but if he looks out of the window, and stretches his neck just a little, he can actually see a real-live castle. In fact, the house Rob live in started out as a hovel, built in one of the castle's outer moats. There's even bits of smashed up castle in its walls. So what better person to write about castles? Rob has pieces of one all around him, and even a bit of moat to wade about in if he needs to practise my castle capturing skills. He doesn't have an elephant though, or a whale - and these can come in useful, as you'll see.


The Secrets of Easter Island

by Rob Alcraft

Published 10 January 2022

Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available.

On a tiny island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, stand hundreds of giant stone statues. Made long ago, they hold the secrets of a lost people. Why and how were these massive statues made? What did they mean? This is the mystery of Easter Island, and a story of the past that we are still trying to unravel.

Lime Plus/Band 11+ books provide challenging plots and vocabulary as well as opportunities to practise inference, prediction and reading stamina.

Pages 46 and 47 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall.

Ideas for reading in the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities.

Rob has always wondered at the mystery and power of the giant stone statues on far-away Easter Island. They look like they know things that we don't - though we are slowly discovering more about their secrets, and about the people who made them. It's a fascinating story, and it's still unfolding. There are still secrets to discover, and much that is yet to be told.