Being a volunteer listener in a primary school is a very straightforward description and an accurate one, but the author insight discovered that there was a lot more to it than he expected. Although it could be treated very straightforwardly, simply listening to one child after another reading from his or her given book and correcting their mistakes and so on, he decided very early on that his place was not to teach or assess. And indeed although he had read two or three excellent books on the subject, he had no intention of getting into the technicalities such as phonics, split digraphs and so on, not least because it may have conflicted with what and how the children had been taught.

Another discovery that, as one chapter describes, there is much more to be observed during the bird's eye view of seeing a child increasing his or her reading proficiency and indeed how they are at the beginning of finding their way in the world.

This book provides a clear insight into why reading standards for a large percentage of children are not satisfactory. Good reading skills are absolutely essential for a child's intellectual growth and parents may not realise the impact on their children's whole life if their reading skills are compromised.

Helping children with their reading is useful, rewarding, sometimes amusing, always fascinating and in the author's experience an ongoing pleasure.