Animal Homes by Lauri Kubuitsile is a Cambridge Reading Adventures reader in the Pink A band, and it is one of the first books a child at the Play Group level of Lahore Grammar School (LGS) is asked to read. The cover is a close-up photograph of a brown bear in a rocky den, with the series logo and a pink ‘Pink A band’ tab down the left edge. The book is 16 pages long (publisher’s listing, ISBN 9781316600719). Available to order now for the 2027-28 session.
Animal Homes is a non-fiction book, which makes it different from most first readers. Each page uses two short, repeated sentences to tell the reader where an animal lives, and photographs of real animals support the words. A three-year-old learns the pattern quickly (‘Look at me. I live in a …’), and by the end the child is pointing at the words and reading them back.
What happens in the book
The animals in this book live in different homes, and the child looks at each one to see where it lives. According to the teaching notes, the frog says ‘Look at me’ and lives in a pond, and the fox says ‘Look at me’ and lives in a den. Only one word changes on every page, and the photograph shows which. The nouns the child meets are den, shell, pond, web, cave and hole, and the words that repeat on every page are look, in, me, I, at and a.
What your child learns from it
The teaching notes list three learning outcomes. In plain words, a child who reads this book can:
- understand that print carries meaning and is read from left to right and from top to bottom;
- use the first letter of a word to check what the picture shows (for example, hearing the ‘d’ at the start of ‘den’ and seeing the letter d);
- track two lines of simple repeated text with a finger, including the ‘return sweep’ from the end of one line back to the start of the next.
How to read it with your child at home
The guided reading lesson in the book is easy to copy:
- Give your child the book and read the title together.
- Say one sentence about it: the animals in this book live in different homes, let us see where each lives.
- On the frog page, point under each word as you read ‘Look at me’, then ‘I live in a pond’, slowly enough for your child’s finger to keep pace.
- On the fox page, ask where he lives, then put a finger under the first letter of ‘den’ and say the sound together.
- Praise careful pointing, then let your child read a page alone.
Fun learning links beyond the book
The teaching notes suggest connecting the book to the world around the child. For nature, talk about how a habitat gives animals food and shelter. For geography, ask ‘Where do we live?’ and collect or draw pictures of the kinds of homes the children in the class live in, with simple captions. These small activities turn a 16-page reader into a week of conversation.
About the Cambridge Reading Adventures Pink A band
Cambridge Reading Adventures is a graded reading series from Cambridge University Press. The Pink A band is the very first step: books for brand-new readers, with only a handful of words (roughly 30 to 60 per book according to the publisher), bright illustrations and a lot of repetition, so a child can recognise the same words again and again and feel like a reader from the first page. Every book carries teaching notes written by Sue Bodman and Glen Franklin, which show a teacher or parent exactly how to share the book.
Who, why, when and where
Whom: Play Group children (about three years old) and the adults who read with them. Why: to build early reading habits, vocabulary and the understanding that words carry meaning. When: at the start of Play Group, and again and again at home. Where: at school and on the sofa at bedtime. Lahore Grammar School campuses use almost the same books, but a few follow their own list for some subjects. Tell us your child’s campus on WhatsApp and we confirm the book before we dispatch.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Pink A band?
It is the first and simplest level of Cambridge Reading Adventures, for new readers with very few words per book.
Is Animal Homes fiction or non-fiction?
Non-fiction. It tells the reader where different animals live, using real photographs.
Who wrote it?
Lauri Kubuitsile is credited on the cover. The teaching notes inside are by Sue Bodman and Glen Franklin.
Order Animal Homes online with Cash on Delivery across Pakistan, or visit our shop in Lahore. Message us the class and campus on WhatsApp and we will confirm the edition before we dispatch.
