Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5)
Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5) by Lari Don takes about 2.5 minutes to read aloud (250 words, about 2 sentences a page), and it lands best with children aged 5-8.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 2.5 minutes
- Words
- 250our estimate, not a published count
- Sentences a page
- 2
- Re-read tolerance
- 3/5holds up
- Vocabulary
- 2/5everyday words
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The useful verdict
Why Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5) works
Collins Big Cat is the scheme whose decodables read most like real books, and this strand is matched sound-for-sound to Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is now the most widely adopted validated phonics programme in English schools. Phase 5 is the Year 1 stage where alternative spellings of the same sound arrive - ai, ay, a-e - and a story written by an actual children's author makes that grind bearable.
Before you buy it
Only worth buying if your school uses Little Wandle; the phase numbering will not line up otherwise. Collins also band their books by colour (pink, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, turquoise, purple, gold, white, lime, in that order) - the phase and the colour band are two different systems and shops mix them up constantly.
Themes: phonics, decodable, squirrels, nature.
Same shape, new story
Books like Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5)
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
- Phonics Learn at Home Pack 1 (Bug Club), Phonics Sets 1-3 for Ages 4-5about 2 minutes · 2/5 re-read
- Julia Donaldson's Songbirds Read with Oxford Phonics 36 Books Collection Set (Stage 1-4)about 32.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Read with Biff, Chip and Kipper: The Moon Jet and Other Storiesabout 6.5 minutes · 3/5 re-read
Phonic Books Dandelion Readers Vowel Spellings Level 1: The Mailabout 5.5 minutes · 3/5 re-read
Usborne Very First Reading: Book 8: Moon Zoomabout 2 minutes · 3/5 re-read
Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds Phonics: Level 1+: Top Catunder a minute · 4/5 re-read
Phonic Books Talisman 1about 38 minutes · 3/5 re-read
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5)
- How long does it take to read Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5) aloud?
- About 2.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 250. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5) actually for?
- Ages 5-8 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 2 sentences a page and vocabulary at 2 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised: The Hide and Seek Squirrels (Phase 5) survive being read on repeat?
- Yes, reasonably. It stays bearable through the repeat-request phase without becoming a favourite forever.