Pig Man / Tin Dog

December 1, 2024

PreS-K-In the first set in this series, the focus is on short vowels, consonants, and a couple of introductory blends and a digraph. The text has three to four words per page making it an appropriate level for ages three to five. The computer illustrated illustrations, odd titles, poorly executed text and story lines, and some grammatical nuisances, like including sentence fragments, lead to a disappointing set of beginning-practice decodables. One title that had a more inviting illustration style, The Tub of Bugs and A Big Kid, purported to focus on /l/ and /ll/ but there is not a single word in the entire text that includes a word with a double /ll/ at the end. It feels irresponsible to publish a decodable title that doesn't match up to the alleged focus. VERDICT Compared to other series on the market, this one falls short.

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