Many struggling Key Stage 2 readers are embarrassed to read aloud. They are often intimidated or bored by texts that teachers and reading specialists require them to practice. So, instead of catching up, they are falling further behind. Reading specialist Amy Buswell has spent eight years looking for remediation methods that work. Four years ago, she came up with a brainstorm. She knew her best readers enjoyed reading Bruce Lansky's poetry books for pleasure. The more poems they read, the better their reading got. Why not use Lansky's kid-tested poems as texts that struggling readers could practice on to improve their reading - using six research-based strategies: choral reading, echo reading, paired reading, repeated reading, sustained silent reading and 'say it like the character' reading.

This book is the result of that brainstorm and the resulting collaboration.