Being curriculum based, it mainly includes activities that develop reading fluency, comprehension and writing skills.

A class reader is the reader component of a series that accompanies the core book, namely the Learner's Book. A class reader is usually a single reader or a small pack of readers in a specific series for a specific grade.

The class reader is designed to begin at the reader's entry level in the specific grade and to become progressively challenging as the learner reads through the book. It is curriculum based and used for individual, pair, group or class reading.

A reading series consists of readers for learners at different levels: emergent, beginner, fluent or independent readers.

A reading series can be used within a grade and across grades. A reading series is curriculum based and usually used for guided reading.

A reading scheme is a comprehensive series that contains a large number of readers and other support materials, such as big books, posters and teachers' books.

A reading scheme offers reading solutions for a phase. All the readers and support material are presented at levels appropriate to each stage or grade.

A reading scheme is used to teach young children how to read, develop fluency and read independently.

The reader is used mainly for individual reading sessions and is also sent home for parents to read with their children. It is curriculum based.

So, a reader is aimed at teaching literacy, improving confidence in reading, extending reading skills, facilitating learning (it is a life skill), self-enrichment and enjoyment.

What is a children's book?

A good children's book enriches a child's life by providing them with literacy works of art and it supports learning through literature. It is based on the theories of language development and it establishes the importance of reading stories for language, emotional, social and cognitive development.

It fulfils various needs, such as the needs for intellectual security (knowledge); physical and material security; emotional security; love and belonging; humour and laughter; aesthetic fulfilment; moral and spiritual fulfilment; understanding, acceptance of self, others and the world; imagination, wonder, fantasy and escape and achievement, success and acknowledgement. It is not curriculum based.

A good children's book speaks to the heart of the child in every person. We all, at some stage, have heard or read a story that influenced our lives in a way that we cannot forget.

Julie Viljoen is the publishing manager of languages, technology and agricultural sciences at Oxford University Press Southern Africa