One of the reading scheme books, Healthy Snacks, runs through - in words of mostly one syllable - a series of procedures for putting grated carrot onto Ryvita (though the rather hard word, 'Ryvita', a hard word for a sad reality, did not itself occur) together with a number of other similarly unappetising, anhedonic combinations.
None of this feels calculated to engage a seven year old's interest or enthusiasm or, indeed, mine (though I tried: valiantly I tried).
"I don't need an adult's help to do that!" one reader commented scornfully a propos of one kitchen procedure and I believed him.
Other reading scheme books are cleverer - one (Beastly Pets by Adrian Bradbury, helped by David Rodriguez Lorenzo's fun, characterful illustrations) explores a young girl's daydreams during a visit to the zoo about acquiring, successively, a tiger, a wolf, an eagle and a shark as pets.
Foreseeing the possible negative consequences belied by these fierce animals' persuasive imagined rhetoric, she instead opts for a goldfish.
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