Book excerpt: The Stage 1 Biff, Chip and Kipper Stories, written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta, provide both wordless stories and a rich story context to help develop language comprehension and decoding skills with simple first words and sentences.Wordless Stories A and Wordless Stories B introduce the characters and children learn that the pictures tell a story, where a story begins and how to turn the pages. First Words and More First Words introduce children to simple words and the characters' names.Each pack of 6 includes a Group/Guided Reading Notes Booklet with a Vocabulary Chart listing high frequency tricky words and a Curriculum Coverage Chart for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Each story has individual notes and suggested activities for Group and Independent Reading,Speaking, listening and drama and Writing, with each section showing the relevant objectives covered. Decoding and Language Comprehension opportunities are highlighted throughout.