Empowering parents and teachers
New! Electronic formats now available
Three new electronic formats are now available to complement the print books. Online and videos/audio formats are made available free of charge to schools or individuals who purchase the full set of 24 books. Interactive e-books are also available for download from the Apple iBooks Store.
The Need for Suzie the Scientist
Children learn to read at school and at home! Two key resources used in Australian schools to facilitate early reading are the take-home reader and the in-class guided reader.
Take-home readers – In the early years of schooling most Australian schools provide take-home reader books where parents (or grandparents or caregivers) take an active role in improving reading literacy and fluency. Unfortunately, the nightly ritual of sitting with your child while they churn through an uninteresting, irrelevant and uninspiring home reader is often a burden for both the child and parent.
Early home reader books are typically disconnected to student interests and disconnected with their school studies. This often leaves parents feeling ill-equipped to assist with developing appropriate reading skills within specific contexts – especially science-based contexts.
The Suzie the Scientist series addresses these issues by empowering parents with the knowledge and skills to assist their child in this, the most important facet of their education – learning to read.
In-class guided readers – Small, in-class, guided reading groups are an integral part of the early reading approaches used in Australian schools. When supported by appropriate texts, guided reading groups engage and motivate students for further reading and have a positive impact on word recognition, fluency and comprehension.
The Suzie the Scientist series provides levelled reading experiences for students using engaging and relevant Australian contexts based on learning outcomes and activities from the Australian Curriculum: Science.
Empowering Parents and Teachers
Learning to read is the single most important life skill that parents and teachers can instil in their children/students. Raising awareness and developing skills in Science, Technology and Mathematics (STeM) to allow them to thrive in 21st century is also vitally important.
The Suzie the Scientist early reader series empowers parents and teachers to do both.
Specifically linked to the Australian Curriculum: Science, this unique 24-book series targets developing readers (from Foundation–Year 2) with age appropriate text to improve literacy, reading fluency and comprehension – while at the same time addressing scientific literacy. The books feature an engaging “cool” scientist (Suzie), to encourage parents, teachers and kids to jointly explore and discuss scientific ideas while improving reading ability.
Suzie provides parents and teachers with relevant background information and interesting scientific facts and ideas that link directly to what their children/students are learning in the classroom.
Before-, during-, and after- reading strategies are also provided. Parents and teachers will therefore be fully equipped to assist student learning in two key areas of their child’s curriculum – namely English and Science.
The Books – a new take on early readers
No other early reader series specifically addresses reading and literacy in the context of the Australian Curriculum: Science covering all three strands (Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Inquiry Skills) and all four sub-strands (Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth and Space) are specifically and overtly addressed.
The books are available in print-form as well as online and as video books for use the classroom free of charge for every full print set purchased. Electronic e-books, for use on tablet devices at home or at school, are also available from the Apple iBooks Store.
The complete list of book titles, including a description of the strands and sub-strands that each book addresses, can be accessed via the ‘download’ box on the right.
A summary of each book can also be downloaded on the right.
The Authors
The Suzie the Scientist home reader series has been written by Australian educators for Australian classrooms. The authors have collaboratively drawn on their experiences as science educators, early childhood teachers and parents to create an interesting and diverse range of books to connect scientific concepts to everyday circumstances that children (and parents and teachers!) can relate to.
Each book topic has been intentionally chosen to capitalise on missed opportunities to use the home reading experience to support other areas of learning in Australian classrooms
Sienna Osborne (Biography)
Randall Hall (Biography)
Richard John (Biography)
Download Book List & Summaries
If you want to view the full set of titles or read a summary of each book, please enter your name and email address below.
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Testimonials
My guided reading group absolutely love the Millie the Mathematician and Suzie the Scientist series. They are totally engaged for the entire session and really look forward to reading. The excitement at discovering the next title we will read together is genuine and creates quite a debate. Thank you for producing such a fabulous resource!
Cyndi, Admin/Teacher Aide Mt Molloy State School
Recently we purchased Millie the Mathematician – P&C Association Special Offer and Suzie the Scientist Early Reader Series as well as received a free additional Millie the Mathematician pack. As they are such a great addition to our home reader and guided reader library, we wish to purchase three more of Suzie the Scientist and two more of Millie the Mathematician so as we would have a library containing four of each math and science packs.
Maria, Teacher, St Patricks Catholic College Primary School
I look forward to receiving the books. I heard about them from the Rotary Assistant Governor of our sector of District 9685, who handed out a flyer at our recent Presidents’ meeting. I’m pleased to hear they have had such strong Rotary support.
Mentie, Wahroonga NSW
Congratulations on a great series, our teachers love them!
Julianne, Librarian, Goondiwindi State Primary School
The teachers and students love the readers.
Felicity, Teacher/Librarian, Townsville Grammar School
I’ve just found your books online. How I wish we had these a few years ago when our little girl (and lover of all things maths and science) had been learning to read! So wonderful to hear about great work coming out of our home state of QLD.
Emma, Mum, QLD