Stories of the Red Rat and the Red Hen: Volume One
- ISBN-10
- ISBN-13
- 9798697329573
- Pages
- 78
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-10-15
- Authors
- Jade Si, Linda von Wartburg
Description
The Picture Books of the Red Rat and the Red Hen help children learn to read by introducing vowel sounds in a logical progression. Beginning with the five single vowels in their long and short forms, the first and second books progressively incorporate oo and ee; ai, ou, oa, and ea; silent gh; and ould. The third and fourth books emphasize soft g, soft c, silent k, and other oddities of the language. The fifth book, The Red Rat's Picture Book of Vowels and Consonants, contains stories about nonconformist letters, the red rat's report on the vowels, and interviews with the vowels themselves about their virtues and challenges. It should be read aloud early on to familiarize your child with the vagaries of pronunciation. The humorous stories are told primarily in one-syllable words that conform to phonics rules. Longer words that intrigue young children, like obviously, and are easy to sound out, like amnesia, are sprinkled throughout to add a thrill and boost confidence. The words are widely spaced to separate them visually. Each page has a border to help confine the reader's attention to the page. The illustrations give clues to the identity of words but do not constrain the reader's imagination. The large pictures and text allow the child to turn pages often, giving a sense of competence. The stories are engaging to both children and adults as the red rat talks with the hen about his challenges with other rodents and resolves his concerns. Unfortunately, the letter names that we say when reciting the alphabet are rarely the sounds that those letters make in a word. If you plan to use this series of books to teach your child to read, you and your beginning reader should watch a video of the 44 phonemes (sounds) of English (the Youtube video by Literacy How is good) on a daily basis for two weeks. Repeating the sounds every day will give your reader the background necessary to decode the words in the book.
