Is Your Child Ready to Read?

Vocabulary is cumulative and begins at birth. It’s developed through social and educational experiences, conversation, reading, hobbies, and opportunities for travel. Children who start school with large vocabularies have an advantage over children with weak word-knowledge. It is easier to learn and retain new vocabulary words when you have a large bank of words to start. As a society, we need to do more for all children if we ever hope to level the playing field before they enter school. However, once they enter school, teaching them how to read and decode words in a systematic, structured manner is the single most effective means of providing all children with the skills necessary to become life-long readers and, hopefully, enable them to grow their vocabularies.

In the third and last of these beautifully illustrated graphic plays, Ms. Query visits the local library and speaks to a librarian about explicit, systematic phonics instruction and decodable books that provide opportunities for emergent and struggling readers to practice their skills.

The library is an essential resource center for parents and children and serves as an adjunct to the schools. Ms. Query’s conversation with the children’s librarian points to a need in the community for such professionals to be knowledgeable about the science of reading in order to fully support children and their families in their quests for literacy.

A great book for parents and librarians alike! Look for all three titles in the "If Only I Would Have Known..." series!