Reading Adventures

Decodable Chapter Books to Engage All Readers

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Meet Big Mess Jess and Jet Pack Jack

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Features of the Reading Adventures Books

Sixteen easy to read, graphic novel style decodable chapter books to build reading confidence. These books are light on text and big on humour and engaging characters and stories. Reading Adventures consists of two, parallel, eight-book series (the Big Mess Jess series and the Jet Pack Jack series).

Scope and Sequence

The two series progress through an identical Scope and Sequence (which also aligns with our Sunshine Phonics decodables series).

To read the first books in either series students only need to know simple code. The later books progress through complex code to extended code. Download the Scope and Sequence for full details.

NEW! The Reading Adventures AI Activity Hub is a new digital program that supports the print books with phonics and comprehension activities.

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Reading Adventures Single Pack Books 1-8 of each series, 1 x 16 titles
Original price was: $152.00.Current price is: $106.40. Add to cart
Sale!

Reading Adventures Multipack Books 1-8 of each series, 5 x 16 titles
Original price was: $608.00.Current price is: $425.60. Add to cart

Meet Big Mess Jess

Big Mess Jess is a big, shaggy, clumsy dog with an insatiable appetite for buns. She leaves a trail of chaos and mess wherever she goes, and causes endless trouble for her owner Pip.

Big Mess Jess and Bad Bob (Book 1)

Big Mess Jess and the great football rescue (Book 6)

Meet Jet Pack Jack

Jet Pack Jack’s jet pack allows him to fly anywhere – but he is not an expert flyer. In fact, he’s terrible. He has a pet rat, Rex, who sits on his shoulder and eggs him on. Despite his lack of confidence and dodgy aerial skills, Jet Pack Jack always manages to save the day… just!

Jet Pack Jack and the burping goats on Mars (Book 3)

Jet Pack Jack and the robot bird (Book 8)

Books include activities and teacher notes

The inside front cover of each book displays the sounds needed to read the book, plus some practice words to blend, and some tricky words to read. At the end of each book there are four pages of student activities, plus four pages of teacher notes.

See how to use Reading Adventures in class (extract from our OLM 6)

Hover over the cover to read the synopsis of each adventure

Big Mess Jess and Bad Bob

Jess and Pip see a robber, Bad Bob, stealing things in their local restaurant, The Big Yum. They pursue and catch Bad Bob, earning the praise and gratitude of the chef.

Big Mess Jess and the zooming jet

Jess follows Pip and her family to the airport. As Jess attempts to track down some buns, she finds herself on the runway. There, she saves a jet from crashing into a luggage trolley.

Big Mess Jess and Fang, the missing kitten

At the vet’s, Jess sees a kitten escape the busy waiting room. When Jess wakes up from her operation, she creates chaos when she helps the other animals escape from their cages. She then sets out on a successful mission to find the missing kitten.

Big Mess Jess and the bad luck duck

During a picnic in the park, Pip feeds mouldy buns to a lucky duck, much to Jess’s annoyance who launches herself into the duckpond to get them back. The duck flaps off and causes Gran’s wheelchair to roll into the duckpond. Luckily, Jess is in the right spot to rescue Gran.

Big Mess Jess and the case of the stolen gold

Jess and Pip go to Ivy Silverspoon’s dress-up party. Jess doesn’t want to get dressed up but she gets covered in orange jam and black paint, making her look like a tiger. Bad Bob, the thief, steals Ivy’s gold and Jess gives chase.

Big Mess Jess and the great football rescue

Jess is a sub for Pip’s football team, the Beasts. Unfortunately, Jess isn’t good at football or teamwork, and gets sent off. But when she spots that baby Beth has got lost on a nearby farm, she works as a team with the farm animals to try to rescue her.

Big Mess Jess and the Rusty Sledge Hammers

Pip and Gran go to a concert to see Gran’s fave rock band, the Rusty Sledge Hammers. Jess sneaks along too, but she damages the speakers just as the lead singer loses his voice. Jess and Gran save the concert by teaming up to sing the last song.

Big Mess Jess and the Wheel of Doom

Pip and Mum are having fun at the funfair, but Jess finds herself getting dizzier and dizzier after the rides. As she stumbles around she accidentally speeds up the ferris wheel, the Wheel of Joy, which quickly becomes a Wheel of Doom as it screeches to a halt trapping the riders, including Mum and Pip.

Jet Pack Jack and Dan, the bus man

When Dan the bus driver falls ill, his bus careers off down the road with kids on board. Jack and Rex zoom after it and, despite crashing through a campsite and a duckpond, they manage to save the bus and the kids - and get Dan to a hospital.

Jet Pack Jack and the fox’s teeth

Jack and Rex visit the zoo, where Rex is very proud of how similar he is to the zoo animals. Wet weather and Rex’s boasting put Jack in a bad mood. The rain also gets into the jet pack, making it smoke and rumble. When a small girl falls into the fox’s enclosure, Jack and Rex put aside their differences and come up with a plan to save the girl.

Jet Pack Jack and the burping goats on Mars

When Jack presses a big, red button on his jet pack, he and Rex go zooming up to Mars. There, they meet a goat farmer whose burping goats have all escaped their pen. Jack and Rex think of lots of crazy ways to help the farmer catch the goats, and they finally succeed by a stroke of luck.

Jet Pack Jack and the problem at the Big Top

Jack and Rex are at the circus. A stormy wind blows in and causes havoc for performers, especially Gail Glitter, high up on her trapeze. Jack tries to help but his dodgy flying skills do not impress the crowd. Jack perseveres, saves Gail, and wins over the crowd.

Jet Pack Jack and the trip back in time

When Rex hits the big, red button on the jet pack, he and Jack are whisked up into a tornado and dropped into Jack’s time travel computer game. They travel through different periods of time getting into sticky situations which call for bravery and self-belief.

Jet Pack Jack and the tournament under the sea

Jack and Rex find themselves at the bottom of the sea where they have to take part in King Neptune’s Great Undersea Games. Unfortunately, a hungry shark chases them onto a pirate ship, where a helpful toucan eventually helps them get back to safety.

Jet Pack Jack and the killer bugs

The big, red button on the jet pack has caused Jack and Rex to shrink smaller than bugs. Insect after insect starts to attack them but they escape them all, until ants carry them off as food. Things get even worse when Polly the toucan tries to eat the ants, and Rex along with them.

Jet Pack Jack and the robot bird

Jack and Rex go to a show to find a robot to help them to do their boring chores. After meeting a series of weird and wonderful robots, the sales assistant gives them a faulty robot bird for free, which promptly steals Rex and flies off with him. Jack finds inner strength to chase the bird and try to rescue Rex alone.

Meet the Author

The Reading Adventures books are written by Sally Sutton, an award-winning author of picture books and junior fiction series.