This guide will please concerned adults seeking guidance not only on how children learn but also on how to best support this critical skill building in daily life. Incorporating both the core information from research-based early literacy textbooks and the fun of preschool projects, this slim volume is easy to digest but rich in detail. Each chapter covers one core element of learning to read, including how and why children need to build specific skills (such as phonological awareness or vocabulary); goals for measuring success; how-to activities; book recommendations; and a bibliography. Recommended for both professional-reading and circulating collections, especially those targeting parents.

Booklist

The authors give wise guidance to parents and other caregivers showing how to provide young children with the experiences and skills that will enable them learn to read in a timely manner and enable them to benefit fully from school-based instruction. Their recommendations are thoroughly practical. They spared no effort to find supporting activities that will engage a child’s interest at each of the successive steps toward achieving literacy. These activities are appealing to children and easy for parents and other adults to implement.

Donald Shankweiler, Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT

Much is known about teaching and remediation in the domain of literacy. It is critical given what can only be described as a national reading crisis, that evidence based practices are available to stakeholders. This book does a terrific job of meeting the challenge of translating “research to practice” and should become an invaluable resource to parents, librarians and educators.

Ken Pugh, Director, Yale University Reading Center, New Haven, CT. President, Director of Research and Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT