Party in the Clouds: Level 11 (Collins Big Cat Arabic Reading Programme), Paperback Book, By: Beverley Birch

Collins Arabic Big Cat is a guided reading series for ages 3 to 11. The series is structured with reference to the learning progression of Arabic at nursery and primary schools researched especially for Collins. This carefully graded approach allows children to build up their reading knowledge of Arabic step by step. Level 11 books provide more literary language, more complex sentence structures and less support from illustrations. Characters are more varied, with action sustained over several pages. Non fiction titles include glossaries where necessary. Sentences are still short for better understanding. However, grammatical vowel endings are more evident to encourage fluent reading and to provide familiarity with some higher level features of written Arabic. Turtle wanted to go to the party in the clouds, but how would she get there without wings? She had an idea, but, unfortunately, things didn't go quite according to plan. This delightful traditional tale from Brazil explains why a turtle's shell looks like a patchwork of different pieces. A story map on pages 22 23 allows children to look back at Turtle's changing emotions along her journey.