First Books set 5 introduces the letters y, x, z, and qu
First Books are unique because they have been developed by Australian authors, the stories have an Australian flavour, the text is presented in 'bat and ball' font, and the books are structured to give lots of practice. The books are best read in numerical order because there is a strong emphasis on the development of a cumulative vocabulary. That is, new words introduced in Book 1.4 (for example) will be practised in Books 1.5, 1.6 and so on.
The books have been developed on a number of principles:
• the words used in each book fit into three categories:
• c-v-c type structure (based on amstif, droghl, ucnkvb, epjw, and yx qu z groupings)
• irregular words
• extended known words, e.g. sit, sits, sitting
• new words are repeated at least twice on the page where they first occur
• new words are repeated at least seven times in the reader in which they first occur
• new words from one reader are carried on to the following readers
• the font size is gradually decreased
• the sentence length is gradually increased
• the punctuation is gradually increased
• the total number of words is increased from approximately 130 in a Set 1 book to over 600 in a Set 5 book
• the text is placed in different positions on the pages