“Down the road” by Celia Berridge

by Rocío Gulin

“Down the road” is a nice book that shows a girl who is going to a friend’s house with her mother. The girl is the one who narrates the story and she describes everything they see on their way down the road. This book writes about different situations that occur when someone walks along the street. It could be used to teach present continuous and possessive adjectives to foreign speakers. What’s more, it could be used to introduce vial education to children.

“Down the road” contains colorful pictures that catch children’s attention and help them to understand the plot. As regards the sentences, they are simple and short. Nevertheless, some of them are written in present continuous, making it difficult for children that are below 8 years old to understand the plot. However, this book could be used to introduce the present continuous. What’s more, some sentences contain possessive adjectives, making this story a good tool to teach them to beginner students of English.

In addition, this book teaches the importance of vial education. This can be seen when the girl says that the red light tells the cars to stop and they can cross when their light turns to green. It also teaches that, when there aren’t traffic lights, people have to stop and see if anything is coming before they cross the road.

“Down the road” is a didactic story that could be used to teach children many different topics. At the same time, children will enjoy reading it because the plot and the pictures it contains are amazing. This book is a well worth reading and I recommend it for children above 8 years old.