Book: HAPPY HOUSE 1

Authors: Stella Maidment- Lorena Robers.

General information

Happy House 1 is part of the Happy House series targeted for very young
learners.Especially for lower forms in primary, first graders and second graders.The book is
divided into 7 units.It contains 6 more pages about festivals and pets.The book has colorful
pictures with little wording.

General observations
The book is designed for students who are just beginning to be exposed to the English
language.The book has the vocabulary children encounter in their daily life.It is age
appropriate.It has basic dialogues to establish daily communications.It contains listening
drills,songs,school objects,family members, colors, clothes, animals, festivals and basic
verbs. games and stories which children can act out.
The characters in Happy House 1 are always the same so as to prevent confusion among
children.The recurring characters serve as a routine and the listening drills help them
remember the words by repetition.
On the downside, although there are a lot of listening activities which help students
familiarize with the sounds of words there are not enough vocabulary activities.At this age
children should be exposed to sight words and this book is a picture book with limited offer
on sight words as they need to associate the word with the picture.

In conclusion, teachers should not use only this book.It should be supplementarized with
other material such as photocopies from other books and websites such as Wordwall or Live
Worksheets.The book has its shortcomings but the educator can compensate it with extra
material.

Good work!