Story of the Year

This is an anthology of the ten winning stories from the Independent/Scholastic Story of the Year Competition. They're a mixed bunch, some realistic, some fairy tales: some funny, some sad. There's something for most tastes and the quality is uniformly high. In my opinion the collection would make an excellent book for reading to over-7s or for experienced and fluent readers (level 3-4) to enjoy independently. What I do not think is that the stories are suitable for the 'children who have just learned to read' between 6 and 9 which was the competition's remit. All the stories require a high degree of sophistication and understanding of the written code and the conventions of storytelling. The subject matter and vocabulary are also well up the ability range in their expectations. This may well reflect the fact that none of the judges was actually experienced in working regularly with early readers. However, with that reservation, this is an entertaining collection.