I See Sam

by Francis Morgan (editor)

This is the first book in the series of beginning readers from ReadingTeacher.com.

New Sounds in Book 1
/a/ /m/ /s/

New Words
I, see - Special Words
Sam - decodable

The 80 books in the series use systematic phonics to ensure that your beginning readers will get a great start in reading proficiency.

The books begin at a very simple level and gradually introduce new sounds and words until students have mastered all 44 phonemes (sounds) in the English language.

The books should be read in order, because the sounds and words in each book build upon those learned in previous books. It is important that students master each book before moving on to the next.

Each new word throughout the program is repeated at least 5 times in the book in which it first appears and 5 more times in the next 10 books.

Story Summary:
In his encyclopedia, Mat the Rat discovers a picture of a real lion and learns many things about lions. Mat sees what a real lion looks like, where he lives and what he eats. Mat is so excited that he wants his friend Sam, who is a lion, to read about the lions too.

14 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 22, 2014

Reviews

[J. Boo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is in some ways a difficult review, because there are multiple different versions of "I See Sam" rolling around. The original was a 1972 government-funded series produced by SWRL and Xerox, and is not under copyright. Some years later,"Reading for All Learners" rolled out a somewhat different version, with enough changes to bring theirs under copyright. And there have been multiple other publications (like possibly this one), the details of which I am unaware.

Anyway, the original 52 book series is rather charming. Good illustrations. Unfortunately, the approach is more or less keyword-based, but at least is one reasonably compatible with phonics. 1960s/1970s keyword-style methodology is not great, but if you're getting phonics from somewhere else then I think these could be reasonable supplements. When I was teaching my kids to read via a phonics-heavy approach, I supplemented with the similarly-vintaged Key Words Reading Scheme from British publisher Ladybird, and I think that worked well.

The book series itself is slow-moving; by book 52, it's still exclusively one-syllable words.

The black and white 1972 copyright-free versions are available here: https://marriottmd.com/sam/

As to the plot of this specific book: a mouse is excited to see a picture that looks like Sam in his book. We then see that the picture is of a realistically-drawn lion, and that Sam himself is a more cartoony version of the aforesaid. Cute.

[Kiyoko · Rating 4 out of 5]

first reading primer, repetitious.

[♥♣Mary♦♠ If She So Pleases · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good Pre-k book.

[April Strickland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous reading set. This is the first of 50 books. Every child (and adult) that I have taught to read has loved the set. It is charming. A company called reading for all learners picked up this set and expanded it to a third-grade reading level. That is also a marvelous program that is effective. I can't recommend it enough.

[The Badger · Rating 4 out of 5]

How I learned to read English! Mom even made flashcards, and (due to the fact that Mom's artistic skills were limited to stick figures) Dad drew pictures of Mat, Sis, etc.

BTW, you can download dozens of these free books online!

[Amanda Schwind · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes as the book began by introducing the key sounds and words in the story... But when there was no variation in vocabulary, the story petered off very quickly and lost my interest would, thus, lose my students' interest, too.