Spines, Stings and Teeth

by Angie Belcher and Andy Belcher

Published 20 September 2004

This non-fiction book explains how sea creatures have spines, stings and teeth and other means to protect themselves from hungry predators. Packed with stunning underwater photographs, there is much to entrance young readers.

  • Green/ Band 5 books offer early readers patterned language and varied characters.
  • Text type – Non-chronological report.
  • A simple table at the end of the book can be used to check understanding and to recap information learnt reading the book.
  • Curriculum links – Citizenship: Animals and us.
  • This non-fiction book is paried with a playscript on a similar theme: Worm Looks for Lunch by Julia Donaldson.

The Baby Turtle

by Andy Belcher and Angie Belcher

Published 1 September 2007

This photographic non-fiction book tracks the life of a turtle. Initially meeting the mother, we stay with her eggs and follow a hatched baby turtle along the dangerous sands to the sea. A story of survival, the turtle returns to the beach to lay its own eggs.

This is a Band 03/Yellow book in the Collins Big Cat reading programme which offers varied sentence structure and natural language. This is a non-fiction recount with a flow-chart on pages 14 and 15 that provides an opportunity to recap and discuss the story. This book supports learning about science, life processes and living things, and humans and other animals. This book has been levelled for Reading Recovery and quizzed for Accelerated Reader. For another story in this Collins Big Cat book band for guided reading, try Around the World (9780007186587) by James Carter.