April 1, 2009
K-Gr 2-Cleary does a masterful job of explaining such potentially dry topics as long vowel sounds with consonant digraphs and inflectional endings by using comic, incongruous situations to get his point across. The silliness of Racks of slacks are by the yaks with the snacks will appeal to children, and the accompanying cartoons clean lines will be equally inviting. On each spread, the featured words are illustrated in a clean white space in a separate box on the left, and the rest of the page uses those words in a sentence accompanied by a cartoon that amplifies the humor of the situation. The vocabulary gradually becomes more challenging. In his introduction, Cleary states that: The bridge to literacy is one of the most important we will ever cross. It is my hope that the 'Sounds Like Reading series will help young readers to hop, gallop, and skip from one side to the other! Mission accomplished.
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