Starfall Learn to Read 15 Phonics Books Paperback – December 1, 2014

These were the best learn to read books I've found. I have purchased several sets and these ones are far better than the rest. My son was actually able to read them with little assistance from me. It gives him great confidence and he enjoys the characters and the stories. I really thought Smurfs, Star Wars, Barbie, Disney Princess, and Alvin would be more interesting for the kids but when I tell them to pick one out to read they grab "Zac books". Now my daughter is beginning to read and loves these books! I think she might have the first one memorized but she wants to read and loves these! I don't know why exactly these worked so well with my kids but I am so very thankful I just happened to order theses.Couldn't find on amazon currently-kinda bummed, I think because Starfall gave rights to the foundation so I saw them on Starfalls website for $15.95. Worth every penny to me! These are on the top of my gift list for preschool age kids now!There's an interactive website that goes along with the books. What I found interesting was that the website is free and they get everything but the Ap only gives them a few and you have to pay. I didn't actually use the website or Ap until this week with my daughter (K). My son (1st) loved the website this week too. If I had incorporated the website I am sure that it would have increased the speed of his learning even more but he's doing fantastic with reading this year, so I'm not worried.

These books are really cute, short and sweet. The pictures really draw in the child. The animal characters are doing various things that most small children love to do (cooking in the kitchen, racing cars, making messes, playing at the beach, enjoying family, etc.). My son (who just turned 5) LOVES them.When we first sat down to read them, I thought they were cute and really focused on letter sounds AND kept the attention of my son. But what REALLY sold me and made me (and my son fall in love with them) was the STARFALL.com website. ALL of the books are ONLINE with animation and sound. The child can even modify the story. It is too cute! My son has his own laptop and loves to go to the website and READ and LISTEN to the books, where they focus on sounding out the words. In addition to the books, there are a million other FUN learning activities ... calendar, writing a letter. It's an absolutely fabulous FUN learning website, all for free! This website has helped with learning and reinforcing what he has already learned in school.So, if you want to see (and read) the books BEFORE you buy, they are all on STARFALL.com.

These books are great, but the real treat is going on Starfall.com and having your child read the books along with the characters. That portion of the site is free, and all of the stories in this book are acted out by the characters. They sound out each word as well, which has helped my child put sounds together to form words.The books are arranged in phonetic sequence, and are all broken into same-sounding words, like Zac the Rat for short-a sound, Gus the Duck for short-u, Robot and Mr Mole for long-o, etc. The stories are short (about 8 pages each book), which is just long enough to allow your child to master them easily and help them gain confidence. At the end of the book, there is a list of the phonics skills that your child will gain, the related phonograms, and a vocabulary list. The words used in the book are also used in the "word machines" on starfall.com, which helps connect the child to the word and the sounds in multiple ways.These books are also all grammatically correct, which has not been the case for other early reading sets. The sentence structure is short, but it is always correct.

At first I was a little frustrated that my early reader wasn't able to move past the first couple books. The series of printed books leaps to a new level quickly and a child just starting out needs more practice at the early levels than this series offers. I suggest Playful Pals and BOB books as better low-level practice material.But I've come to realize that if the child is doing the online exercises, with the help of an adult, the child will have more opportunities to play with each new skill level being taught. The exercises offer some of the practice a child will need to get through each book. The flash animations are also goofy and fun. My daughter has lots of fun playing with the exercises and learns something along the way.Particularly when we were introducing the silent e and long vowel sounds, I needed this kind of supplementary practice and teaching tool. The starfall animated exercises were engaging enough and offered the visual cues to make the light bulb go on for my daughter. And they're free! Plus the "click and drag" is super easy for a kid using a scroll pad on a laptop. The mouse was too difficult for my preschooler but she could do the scroll pad to navigate or manipulate the content on the screen.The books on their own are inadequate to move an early reader along from one stage to the next. So my recommendation is to invest in one of the other series like BOB Books or Playful Pals but to use all the great FREE content on Starfall's website to enhance this set of books. Then the paid content offers even more good material that adds up to a pretty good program.