Marguerite Maher

The Kid in the Wild West Marguerite Maher

This is a beginning reader. The main character is a six-year-old called the Kid. She lived in the Wild West of America when there were cowboys, horses, cattle and roundups. She lived on a ranch with Brian, the rancher; with Dave, the foreman, who looked after things when Brian was not there; with Cooky, who cooked meals for the hungry cowboys and the Kid; and ten other cowboys. In this story, the Kid and Brian went to town. She and her best friends, Tommy and Peewee, have a night adventure... This book is a beginning reader written for children who are learning to read at school. The author is a professor of education in Australia and has been involved in literacy teaching for over forty years. She has written this book to provide children with the reading mileage they need on their journey to becoming independent readers. For best outcomes, an adult should read with the child at first. As confidence grows, the child will increasing take the lead in reading. When children are using a lot of working memory to decode the words on the page, sometimes fluency and comprehension can be compromised. This book has been specifically written to enhance access through simple sentence structure, but vocabulary is never compromised. With reading mileage comes fluency and with fluency comprehension is advanced.