Welcome to day 3 of the Back to School Blog Tour. Today, I have a fantastical, magical surprise for you. It’s Ellie’s Magical Surprise, a picture book that will help beginning readers with their phonics and imagination. Written by Erin Davenport, this beautifully illustrated picture book will sparkle in the minds of any child that wanted to own a unicorn, including myself when I was a child.

Ellie is waking up on what she thinks is a normal day. But after breakfast, she discovers, with help from her mother, someone else living in the horse stables on her farm, a magical unicorn. After exploring each stable, she bonds with the new creature living with the other horses. It’s a pleasant surprise that will enchant any horse owner and child that loves horses.

The first thing that stands out about this picture book is the repeated rhyming words that help with phonics identification for beginning readers. This is a picture book that beginning readers will be able to follow along or read themselves. It brings to mind the early rhyming text used by Dr. Seuss to help children with decoding words. But even better. After exploring the stables on her farm, Ellie discovers a new friend, a unicorn. I am sure the adventures that await them will be enchanting.

I recommend this picture book for teacher’s needing beginning reader books in their reading groups or if teaching reading workshops. It also has a little girl protagonist to give variety in storytelling heroes. The rhyming patterning of the text is great for beginning decoding. It will also be a great fantasy picture book read for parent’s that are homeschooling, especially if your child adores horses and would love to own a unicorn.

Ellie’s Magical Surprise is a beautifully illustrated book that will help any horse-loving child with their phonics and decoding.

This Kindle unlimited book is available on Amazon as a ebook or in print.

For more information on Erin Davenport and her other books, visit her author page here.