Once the child catches the rhythm or the rhyming pattern, it enhances his ability to predict what will come next. Many also use a cumulative pattern as the story progresses. A familiar example of a story that has a cumulative pattern is The Gingerbread Man where each of the fugitive cookie's pursuers is added to the narrative as the story reaches the climax. Stories that are familiar to a child also enhance their predictability. It is easy for most children to predict what the wolf will say in The Three Little Pigs because of their prior experiences with the story.
Familiar sequences are often characteristic of predictable books.
But he was still hungry. On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry. The primary reason for using these books in the earliest instructional sessions has to do with motivation. Because of this delay, he may become confused about the purposes or value of reading. The rewards of learning to read may be perceived as being so far off into the future that the child gives up hope.