Language Arts Books

This bok provides allot of examples and leads by that making it easy to understand and follow.

Not a lot of waste involved with this book. The reviews here are right on. This book shows how to do tech writing by example. It also gives reliable guidelines for doumentation planning. If you are a starting tech writer reading this book is what you need to do solid instructions writing. it does not really cover documentation technologies, but after reading this book you should be able to choose technologies that enable the type of doc writing and concepts in this book.

Weiss covers all the basics: not just how to write, but how to plan documentation so that it benefits the user, the technical contributor and the person responsible for getting the documentation to users. The ideas are practical, sensible and well formed. Examples and exhibits (graphics) provide real-life models. The writing is clear, concise and a prime example of the author's premise. The typography and layout do the same. This is just what my boss (an engineer) and I (a tech writer) have been looking for: ways to upgrade our documentation process and our documents. The structure suits us wonderfully and is easier to apply than I thought possible.

This book clearly and succinctly lays out the objectives and the methods of technical writing. After 15 years in the business I still haven't seen another book that comes even close to this one.

This book is all about applying engineering principles to document production. Basically, you start with questions like: "Who is this documentation for?" and "What is the document's purpose?". You then plan your document as a series of modules. By creating a title, abstract and outline for each module, you have a basis to discuss, test, plan and assign sections of the document. I've seen a few technical books follow the layout guidelines presented in this book, and the results are usable and readable. The procedures will take your team some getting used to -- but the results are worth it. My documentation projects that were overwhelming became manageable.

After recently writing and publishing two books of my own and spending most of my time learning the hard way (trial and error - mostly error) I was kicking myself for not taking the time and doing the right searches to find this book before and not after the 100's if not 1000's of hours of writing time. After a while you quit counting. April's book is indeed a breath of fresh air in otherwise stuffed rooms of misleading, and often wrong information. I was very appreciative of finding so much information in one source. Took a few pages to unravel the meaning of the title - Indieauthor Guide - but this may have been intentional as the style of writing develops like a story - one chapter at a time - uncovering the hidden secrets in the publishing industry. Great job - great writing - April did her homework.

Reading this book is a must for the writer who is trying to self publish their work. Everything you need to know or could ever have a question about is covered. I had the honor of reading it before publication and I found it extremely helpful and easy to understand. The author has done a massive amount of research.

April Hamilton gives a brief background to the publishing business as a whole and then leads you from start to finish on getting your work into print. She covers subjects like getting started, formatting, editing and designing your own cover as well as promotion and getting a website up. Everything is in plain easy to understand language so it is very easy to follow if you are new at this. In my opinion this book is a must have.

Just received my copy of "The Indie Author Guide" and I am not disappointed. Ms. Hamilton has expertly complied the steps to have your works published in a very easy to read book. I have concentrated my study on the section for the Amazon Kindle, but interested in POD in the near future. Well worth the price for all the in-depth information it contains. If you are an aspiring author it would benefit you greatly to purchase this book.

Just as musicians are now marketing their work directly to the buying public online, April L. Hamilton asserts that writers can do the same thing and offers a comprehensive nuts-and-bolts guide to the aspiring writer who wants to do it on his own. I can see caveats to her argument. Musicians in niche or popular genres can sell individual songs or albums online, but the classical composer who needs a symphony orchestra is still stuck. Likewise some traditional literary genres might require paper and traditional distributing venues, but niche and midlist writers should take note. This may soon be the best way to get your work out to your readers.

This book ought to be required reading for all would-be authors. Even if you are lucky enough to have an agent and your book is heading for publication with a top-notch publisher, Hamilton's guide is a sobering account of the reality of the publishing business and her section on promotion is vital to your interests.

She disentangles the jargon. This book explains what an ISBN is, discusses "widows and orphans" and why they are undesirable in the formating process. Hamilton explains the distinction between royalties and net profit. She points out that the lower overhead of the indie route might help an author stay in business and garner an income long after a mainstream publisher would have given up. She warns that higher production costs can lead to pricing yourself out of the market since an indie author doesn't enjoy the same economies of scale that the big publishers enjoy.

Creative writing classes and writer's groups will find tips on honing the content in the Editing and Revising section. Networking for feedback is an important part of improving the final product. There's something here for writers of every level and reading this book will instantly make you less naive about the business of writing.

About half of the content is a nuts and bolts guide to electronic publishing, including how to format a manuscript to produce a visually appealing and marketable product complete with cover and jacket blurbs. Hamilton has written a thought-provoking how-to manual that should encourage independent thinking.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is informative, well outlined, well written, and covers a topic close to my heart - self publishing. This book is divided into the following 12 chapters:

1. Indie authorship: An introduction
2. Publishing options
3. Getting organized
4. Creating your brand
5. DIY formatting for POD
6. Editing and revising
7. Designing your own book cover
8. Publishing through CreateSpace
9. Publishing for Kindle
10. Publishing for other eBook formats
11. Promotion
12. An HTML primer

At one point the author says that subsidy and vanity publishing don't offer any advantages over POD publishing these days. I'm not sure this is true. After reading Aaron Shepard's book entitled "Aiming at Amazon" (ISBN: 093849743X) last year I learned that small text does not print as well with POD. Nor do pictures in the book using POD technology. And if the book is going to be over 200 pages or so, then POD might get a little expensive as compared to traditional printing methods. But if you understand the ins and outs of POD publishing, then it is definitely the route to go in order to sell your writing on Amazon. A good, but slightly dated, book on POD is "Print-on-Demand Book Publishing" (ISBN: 0972380132).

Although I haven't read "The Frugal Book Promoter" (ISBN: 193299310X), it is my understanding that it goes into some depth about the importance of branding when promoting one's book. Chapter 4 in the instant book did a nice job explaining the importance of branding.

Although I haven't read "Perfect Pages" (ISBN: 0938497332), it is my understanding that it goes into some depth about how to create formatted Word documents for Print on Demand (POD). Chapter 5 in the instant book did a wonderful job explaining how to use Word to format your self published book copy for POD.

This afternoon at Barnes & Noble I read "The Frugal Editor" (ISBN: 0978515870) and found it to be a good book. But I liked the coverage of how to edit and revise (or get help in editing and revising) in Chapter 6 of the instant book. Well done!

Mr. Shepard in "Aiming at Amazon" explained how to go about designing your book's cover if you were going to use Lightning Source, Inc. as your POD printing service. In Chapter 7 of the instant book we are told how to design a cover if we are going to use Amazon's CreateSpace printing service. I think this coverage could have gone into a little more detail on how to use and customize graphic files. But it was certainly good coverage on the topic.

The material covered in chapters 8 and 9 I have not seen in print in other books yet. They were well done. And Chapter 10 was informative.

Chapter 11 covered promotion well. I liked it. Other books on the subject I like are: "Sell Your Book on Amazon" (ISBN: 1432701967), "Plug Your Book!" (ISBN: 0977240614), and "The Author's Guide to Building an Online Platform" (ISBN: 1884956823). But consider getting another book ["The Web Savvy Writer" (ISBN: 0977830403)] sold as an ebook by its author, and an audio book entitled "Secrets of Successful Blogging System" (ISBN: 0978806018) which is kind of pricey, but really good. If you get all these resources, read them, and study them, then you should have an excellent idea about how to go about marketing your tome or tomes.

Chapter 12 was OK. But I think I would have liked the book better if it had been left out. It kind of felt as though it was not within the scope of the book's subject matter. All in all, this book is a gem. I think it is good as a stand-alone guide, but it will really shine if used in conjunction with other books I have referenced in this review. 5 stars!

I have seen many journalism books, and this one is simply the best IMO. I can't wait to buy the second edition when it comes out!

Tim Harrower's Inside Reporting is unlike any textbook I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them throughout my years and years of college.

It looks weird on the shelf because it's an inch taller and an inch wider than most typical textbooks. Open it up to any one of the first 186 pages and stunning graphics jump off the page. Sections are small and fit nicely on one sheet. It looks like a colorful newspaper. The following hundred pages (aka, "The Morgue") look like the typical textbook--large blocks of text. The Morgue is a section of reference articles and examples.

Inside Reporting is well organized. Each section is brief but packs a punch. Look to the bottom of most pages and you'll find directions to other page numbers with more material or references to the Morgue. Each chapter is also full of surveys, quotes from those in the industry, tests, and extra tidbits to help the budding journalist.

I'm not yet and established journalists and I don't teach the subject. In fact, I'm not even in a journalism class. I picked up Inside Reporting because I wanted a good survey of journalism. This grad student of a different study wants to learn more about journalism. I wanted a book with meat but was fearful that an introductory book would be too fluffy and lack the information I needed. This book was not the case.

Inside Reporting is a fantastic textbook. I couldn't have picked a better book, and I'm sure I'll be going back to it often as I move forward in the journalism arena.

I have purchased dozens of books on journalism over the past few months, but nothing matches the content, style or ease in finding information of this great book.

While there are many great books on journalism, most if not all of them are much the same as any other textbook, pages and pages of text which you must read and interpret to find what you want.

This book is visual in the most unique way I have ever seen in a textbook. Almost like a cross between a real newspaper and a comic book, all the information is presented in little snippets and pictures that are easy to understand and easy to digest.

As an example it has a page in the news writing section about writing a lead for a plane crash and gives examples of how different leads could be written highlighting the who, what, when, where and why. Most texts have something like this, but most would not go to the lengths that this author has done to enable the reader to understand the benefits and pitfalls of leading with a particular method.

The text has dozens of tips and information from working journalists and I liked the section in the back called the Morgue which contains examples of the stories used in the text.

The text has great background information on journalism which I would otherwise have ignored in other texts because of the way it is normally presented and overall I would rate this from a student's perspective as the single best investment I have made so far.

It is simply a gem of a book that is easily lost in Amazons catalogue. Decide for yourself if this book is for you but I would be surprised if anyone interested in journalism could not come away from reading this book and not have learned anything.

I am both a veteran journalist and a veteran college journalism teacher and "Inside Reporting" is the best introductory book ever. Interesting, accurate, visually pleasing and fun to read, it is the new "gold standard" of books with which to teach news writing and reporting. I am adopting it as the required text for the fall semester, and I keep my own copy handy to remind me of what I should be doing.

If you want to learn or teach journalism, this is the book.

Good night and good luck.

I've been a reporter and journalism instructor for 20 years and have used everything out there during that time. I've also used Tim's other text "The Newspaper Designer's Handbook" in my editing sections. This book is a joy to use --- last night I went over chapter 4 during a 6-9 p.m. class and as I added my anecdotes to the lecture, two hours flew by thanks to the slick structure of this text.
All instructors think they could do it better when assembling a textbook, but I can't say that any more. Tim has done it. This book covers everything I could ever think of and more. He discusses style. He includes tests and exercises and there is even an anthology he uses as a "morgue." Get a desk copy and require it for your students. It is a great book, one that will not be sold at the end of the semester, but kept on the shelf and used as a reference for years to come. He stresses convergence and the move from print to the web in a way that makes us old timers feel less of the pain. This is the new basic text for me. Wow what a book!

I've been practicing Japanese lately with a tutor, and this book has been immensely helpful to me!

I found this book to be extremely helpful in properly pronouncing japanese words and phrases. I've purchased several books on learning to speak Japanese and find myself constantly referring to "Instant Japanese" by Boye De Mente when I'm unsure of the correct pronounciation. In addition, the size is perfect to carry around in your purse or pocket!

Highly recommended!

This is one of the best beginning books on Japanese that I've seen. Mr. Demente's "learn 100 words" theory is fantastic. If you're going to Japan and don't intend to spend hours in serious study of Japanese but would like to communicate basic ideas, I'd recommend this book. Plus, like others noted, this book easily fits into your pocket.

nice little book.
Most phrases and words here are common and used everyday.

I just got back from a two-week vacation in Japan, where I used several books in an attempt to improve my miniscule knowledge of Japanese. This book was the best of a good lot; the word selection is excellent, and the book teaches sufficient grammar almost effortlessly; most important, it's small enough to finish fairly quickly. Of course, it's only a start--for a second book, I recommend "Japanese Made Easy" by Tazuko Ajiro Monane.

Even if you thoroughly learn the content of this book, though, you still want to carry around a phrase book for those (frequent) times when 100 words just isn't enough. De Mente's book will teach you enough Japanese so that you can make simple sentences without looking up every word, but you will still need words not in this book.

[Minor complaints: he spells the word "o" (pronounced "o") with the old spelling "wo" throughout the book, for no apparent reason. Also, an index would have been nice.]

In short, the book is superb for its one intended purpose, which is teaching a very basic, careful selection of Japanese--an "instant" introduction.

This book picks up at the end of Primary Language Lessons and continues on with additional exercises. If the you liked the first, then you'll like this one as well!

Even though this is suppose to be for younger kids (4th grade), I bought it for my 8th grade son and it is just right for him. The lessons include writing and speach. There is not an answer key because you don't need one you will be able to do language lessons with just this book. I would plan to take more than one year to finish it though.

I have both this book and the Primary Language Lessons from the same author. They are both great books! The Intermediate is wonderful! I am very picky about Language books, and this one meets all my criteria. Love it!!

After 18 years of homeschooling 9 children it takes a very good book to get me excited enough to review it! I love the Charlotte Mason method, but sometimes lacked the ability to keep all of the facets organized.

This book is designed for 4-6th grades with the answers written on paper. It has picture study, oral narration, excellent written narration and composition assignments, outlining, copywork, recitation of beautiful poetry, dictation, grammar and more. The illustrations are lovely. I have even used it with an older child who lacked the fundamentals.

It is challenging for kids who struggle with writing, but it's the exact right kind of challenge. Gentle, but moving them toward excellence. It's easy to modify on the fly for an advanced or struggling child, and takes no teacher preparation if you are familiar with the terms narration, dictation, picture study, etc.

I use Primary Language Lessons in 2-3rd grades first and follow up with this. I buy one for each of my children using the program because the copywork sometimes takes them awhile. A thorough program for this grade, minus all the busywork.

I would highly recommend this book. To be fair, I have not used it yet, but have gone over it thoroughly. It is very gentle in its approach, and yet meaty at the same time. I plan on using this book for my daughter while she is in grades 4-6. It has 300 lessons that are broken into 3 sections, so 100 lessons a year. Plan on doing three lessons a week, every day. Some of the lessons take more than one day to go through them. I went through and made a schedule of the first 100 lessons and it worked out just about perfect to finish in a year. I looked at English for the Thoughtful Child and First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind. Neither of those books hold a candle to this one. I would hightly recommend it!

Introduction to Old English, is, overall, very well laid out. It is easy to understand and presents new material in an ordered way. My one problem, however, is with the practice sentences and texts. They require a much higher knowledge of Old English that could be expected at the very beginning levels. Besides that, there are no major problems, and it should be an otherwise good experience.

Dr. Baker's "Introduction to Old English" is probably the best book for a person to use who has no previous experience with either Old English or traditional linguistics. I used this book as an undergraduate taking a graduate Old English course and found it most enjoyable and useful. Each chapter is quite easy to follow, and usually contain at least one "mini-text" which are short texts in Old English that you can read along the way. This method is especially useful; by the time you begin with the anthology of literature located in the back of the book, you've already read some simplier passages of Old English.

The book is worth its retail price simply for its collection of literature. Included here are the "The Wife's Lament", "The Wanderer", "Wulf and Eadwacer" and excerpts from "Judith" and "Beowulf". This book is even helpful for someone who has no previous study in the history of the English language, although those who do will find this book superbly accesible.

Professor Baker's relatively new book is the best one-volume start for someone learning Old English outside of a classroom setting. It is significantly better for this purpose than Mitchell's book, although Baker does not convey quite the same sense of enthusiasm that Mitchell does.

In addition to the expected format for a book such as this, which consists of grammar-oriented instruction, graded readings, and a glossary, there are excellent chapters on metrics, manuscript reading, and a fine bibliography and set of recommended readings. He even provides a chapter for the reader who might be deficient in common grammatical terms.

The highlight of the book, though, are the links to the online exercises, which provide a much more convenient method of practice. Focused practice is essential when learning a language, and the online exercises are much better than the usual handful of perfunctory exercises provided in graded grammars. In many such books, answers to the exercises aren't even provided.

In summary, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn to read and appreciate Old English on their own.

As a learning tool, Peter S. Baker's Introduction to Old English succeeds marvellously in that it is concise and clear without erring on the side of oversimplification. The ordering of chapters is intuitive and the key concepts are easily accreted along the way; in comparatively little time readers will acquire a wealth of knowledge, and in its practicality the book is sure not to intimidate the uninitiated.

The basic review of English grammar is both thorough and efficient without being overly pedantic. Unfortunately, more and more students of English are finding themselves ill-equipped and poorly acquainted with the basics of grammar. Baker's review will familiarize them with the grammatical essentials while simultaneously providing a useful review to those more accustomed to them. There is sufficient treatment of the main topics in the text without any superfluous explication that might confuse the introductory reader. Baker's plain English explanations are unambiguous and, where possible, he offers Modern English correlates and analogues that effectively frame the linguistic topic being discussed.

The chapters on the style and grammar of poetry are essential resources. Poetry makes up such a significant part of the extant Anglo-Saxon literature that it would be a failure on the part of the author to leave the student stranded in the intricacies of the form. Taking the chapter on reading manuscripts into consideration, as well as the appendices, Baker helps the student build a truly solid foundation upon which to base further study. The glossary, for example, allows students who are as yet unfamiliar Anglo-Saxon word forms to easily find what they are looking for, and will furnish them with the skills they need to approach more ambitious dictionaries.

The companion web site provides a variety of resources for the student. The Old English "Magic Sheet" is a tool that students will find invaluable in their initial approach to Anglo-Saxon Literature. As the student refers to it repeatedly in his or her reading, he or she will quickly become more familiar with the forms and may soon be weaned off of it. In each chapter there are references to relevant "Old English Aerobics" exercises online, which can assist students in need of some basic practice with the material. The ability to look up a word, part of speech, or clause with the click of a button is a testament to the work that was put into developing the resource. While I must applaud the author's forward thinking and effective use of the technology, getting online may yet provide challenges at times for certain students, and the exercises themselves can prove somewhat short and elementary. A simple solution to these minor problems might be to include self tutorial exercises in a new edition, or to publish a companion workbook at some point in the future. To my knowledge, no such resource exists in Old English, and it must be said that there is simply no substitute for routine practice when learning a new language.

These minor concerns are truly subordinate to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Though the book itself may not be a substitute for practice, passages appropriate for initiates to tackle and translate are included in the anthology, and students will find themselves far better equipped to approach Old English after having covered the main topics. It was with great pleasure that I found my own abilities dramatically improved after simply having covered the sixteen initial chapters. Introduction to Old English proves to be not only an exceedingly effective primer with regard to Anglo-Saxon literature, but an invaluable reference to accompany further readings and studies within the context of the language. Every student of Old English should sleep with a copy of this book under their pillow.

I bought a copy of Baker's Introduction to Old English while taking a graduate course in order to supplement the other texts used. I found this to be a fantastic resource for the solo learner. The explanations were precise yet easy to understand and the exercises helped to illuminate the grammar points. I really enjoyed the online exercises, standard these days in foreign language courses, which quickly allowed me to grasp concepts. All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Old English.

G.V. Gordon's book is an excellent introduction to the Old Norse Language. It explains the intricacies of Norse grammar lucidly, and is very easy to work with. The fact that one cannot obtain it here, is really unfortunate; however, on the positive side, I know for a fact that at least one other major internet site has it.

It seems like this book has been around forever. It was first published in 1927 and for many years was the only English language resource for learning Old Icelandic. But that didn't mean that Gordon made the process easy. There are no basic lessons of the "Helgi is a Viking. See Helgi loot" type that you normally expect to find in an introductory language text. On the contrary, Gordon provides the grammar and vocabulary all right--at the end of the book--but it's up to the user to apply them to the wide selection of classic Norse literature that he's included. It's not an impossible way to learn the language, but it can be confusing at first. Those who have a background in Old English will find it easier going because of the similarities between the two languages.

Gordon was the text my class used many years ago when I took Old Norse in grad school. I still remember my professor pointing out all its inaccuracies and criticizing the author. Nonetheless, between Gordon, Zoega's dictionary (now available online), and a xerox of "Gunnlaug's Saga," we muddled through. Learning a language by parsing each word is tedious, but it does give one a sense of accomplishment.

In addition to the grammar and literary selections, Gordon contains a lengthy historical introduction to Old Norse literature. It's out-of-date by now, but still a good place to start. As for the selections themselves, they provide a fairly broad overview. "Hrafnkel's Saga," a gem of a character study, is given in its entirety. There are selections from Snorri and from the Vinland sagas, among other pieces. The only complaint that I have is that Gordon is a little light on the poetry. The humorous "Thrymskvida" (sorry about the spelling) and "The Waking of Angantyr," an eerie little piece not included in the standard eddic canon, are the major poems.

Whether or not you use Gordon as your primary grammar, its selection of litearture makes it a worthy companion for the student of Old Icelandic. My copy is now battered and missing its spine, but it still has a place on my bookshelf.

Man, this book was something I'd been searching for. I am one of the self taught speakers of Old Icelandic, and it's not like there is a whole lot of Runic inscriptions to be translated in Richmond Virginia. Rather then allowing my Old Icelandic skills to sit their and gather dust on a shelf in my skull, I now have something to read!

Please don't send away 30 dollars thinking that this book is going to teach you to read Old Norse / Old Icelandic. If you're hoping for a basic grammar, with graded lessons, you're going to be disappointed. This is an excellent work, an indispensable work, but it's a reader for those who have already learned the basics of Old Icelandic.

After a brief introduction to Scandinavian history, the Viking expansion, and saga literature, the author gives about 160 pages of West Norse, normalized into classical Icelandic. Most of the selections are from the sagas, and they are well annotated, and a full vocabulary is included in the back of the book. There is also a section on what he calls "East Norse" (the Old Norse particular to Denmark, Norway and Sweden), and a small section dealing with the language of the runic inscriptions.

There is a 40 or 50 page section where he presents the grammar, but it's more along the lines of an outline of the grammar. It's sufficient for someone who already has a good knowledge of Old English, OHG, or Gothic, but my hat's off to anyone with the determination to acquire a reading knowledge of the language from this grammatical sketch alone.

There's the rub: where DO you get the introduction to Old Icelandic that will enable you to use this book with benefit? The superb learning grammar "Old Icelandic: an Introductory Course" by Valfells and Cathey is out of print. Kenneth Chapman wrote "Graded Readings and Exercises in Old Icelandic" about 35 years ago, but that's disappeared as well. Until either of those works is reprinted, or a new introduction is written, it's going to be tough.

But none of this is meant to take anything away from Gordon's work; it's a wonderful, scholarly work. Problem is, you really do need to have something of a background before you use it.

This is a very nice book and the one we used in my Old Norse class at BYU, and the selections are all very good, very interesting. However, I agree with the reviewer that this is, despite the title, hardly the best introdruction to the language.

What I recommend is this: Get yourself Stefán Einarsson's fine book, "Icelandic: Grammar, Texts, Glossary", which is set up in lessons for the beginner and which you can get real cheap here at Amazon. That book is modern Icelandic, so the readings aren't about Egill Skallagrímsson or Snorri's Edda, but not only is the Old Norse spirit very much alive in modern Iceland (and all the people very familiar with the old stories), but the language has changed extraordinarily little in the last thousand years (very very minor things), so that if you learn modern Icelandic even reasonably well (which you will from Einarsson), you can easily pick up the sagas with no problem.

Then, when you've finished with his book, you can get Gordon, which will be much more enjoyable then. Alternatively, you can get the texts of lots of the sagas online from Icelandic sites and get hardcopy English versions here at Amazon to use as "ponies". (Hrafnkels saga is a good one to start with, or Snorra Edda.) Good luck!

Jolly Phonics deserves 10 stars or more, but as five is the highest in this system, I'm giving it five plus. After watching these tapes for just about a month, my daughter learned to read--and she's only two and a half years old. She loves the adventures of Inky and friends, and she likes to repeat after them, thus learning phonics in the process. A great set of books, tapes, magnets, and stencils! Inventive, effective, and just right for 2 1/2 - 5 yr. olds.

You will not regret buying this program!! We are Americans who lived in England for 6 years. My older 3 were very fortunate to go through several years of primary school there and learned to read with Jolly Phonics, which is now part of the UK's National Curriculum. I can't say enough great things about this program, and only wish it were widely used in schools here! It was introduced in preschool, my children all started school the year they turned 5 (they were actually 4 1/2 when they started), and by the end of their first year they were all fairly fluent readers. Not only is it effective, it is FUN. Kids learn BEST when they are having fun in the process. I saw the program in action in the classroom as a parent volunteer, and was so completely sold - you should have seen the smiles on those children's faces, and the pride in themselves they showed when I would listen to them read individually. I couldn't believe how advanced those children in that school were in reading and spelling compared to here in the USA. My kids went on to be very avid readers, always having their noses in books of all sorts. I will definitely be buying this program for my youngest two, who are now preschoolers, and using it at home.

We were introduced to Jolly Phonics while living in England. This phonics program is heads above the crowd in teaching phonics. The multi-level approach to teaching the basic sounds of the English language are successful and fun. The student workbooks, puzzles, stencils and videos make learning fun. The teacher workbook has loads of reproducibles and additional activities to reinforce and encourage reading and writing. I continue to be amazed at the results I have seen in my daughter and other children using this approach.

Our daughter's teacher in England had been teaching 4-5 year olds for 20 years when she was introduced to Jolly Phonics. She too feels it is the best program she has ever seen, and as head of Key Stage One at the local primary school, she has really seen positive results. Studies in England have shown Jolly Phonics to be successful with children at all learning levels. A study done in our local county showed children learned 450% more using Jolly Phonics than children who used the traditional county phonics curriculum.

This program would be a runaway hit on this side of the Atlantic if more people knew about it. The program introduces the 42 sounds of the English language in sets of 6 sounds. At the end of each workbook, a child is already able to write and sound out words. The price of the boxed set is an incredible value for the money. As you can see, I love Jolly Phonics and only wish I had known about it in time for all my children to use.

This is the best phonics program out there. Jolly phonics is amazing!! I researched several programs and this one made the most sense. It teaches on several levels. For each phonic sound there is an action to go along and this helps them jog their memory. For each page in the books there is a recessed letter that you can "trace" with your finger to help children form letters correctly. The video will help you employ all the ways to teach. Also, the type setting the program uses is Sassoon Infant and with a couple extra strokes will enable them to learn cursive. You are encouraged to teach your child a new sound every day. Believe it or not, my very active four year old boy has no problem keeping up. (We did have to take a couple extra days on the letter T.) Because they learn the sounds so fast, they are reading words like: spin, tip, is, pat, sat, etc. in the first WEEK!!
The teaching aid handbook provides great "rules" to memorize, such as: When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking. This is very useful in the majority of double vowel words such as, goat, boat, pie, tie, train, snail, etc.

There are a series of workbooks included in the box. They are by far my sons favorite books (except for the dinosaur books) and he sits on his own and reads them all the time. He is only 4 years and 4 months old and I am astounded at the words he is reading. Right now we are on book 4 and he hounds me day and night to move to the next book, he always wants to learn more than one sound a day and I have to force him to slow down.

My schedule:
Introduce new sound using finger phonics book:
10-15 minutes to discuss sounds, action and pictures
5 minutes to cut out new letter and paste into his "sound book"
3 minutes to practice writing new letter (my son tires of this quickly and I try to keep him interested but my rule is: Stop before it's not fun anymore.
later in day,
5 minutes of showing Daddy what he learned (practice)in the evening.

He loves to watch the videos and that reinforces what he learns. This is a wonderful program. Engaging and colorful. Because this program utilizes actions for each sound, you can practice anywhere. I will silently act out the action for a small word and my son will "read" the word. Then he tries to "act" out a word, too, with some funny results. We do this in the car, during dinner, while I am nursing our new baby- it is a wonderful tool. I don't know why other programs haven't used this terrific method. This program is worth every penny and much, much, more. Look no further, and start reading!!
-Homeschooling Mommy of three boys

It truly boggles my mind why this is not a more popular program in the U.S. for it is such fun and creative way to learn to read. My dd was 5 when we started it, in a few weeks she was reading simple CVC words and now a month later she is reading Dr. Seuss and sentences out of "The Boxcar Children."

The Handbook, the Finger phonics books and the Phonics workbook make up the gist of the program. But the videos are extremely helpful in reinforcing the letters and sounds through cute characters, and the teaching video is helpful to start off the "nervous" parent who may not be confident in teaching a child how to read.

A special favorite is the wall frieze which hangs up in my dd's bedroom as a wall border, and for weeks, with no prodding from mom, she would go over the sounds with their "motions" before she would sleep at night. She was having so much fun she never thought she was learning.

This program does not have the feel of "sit down and plod through a boring workbook" as there are so many activities, via audiotory, visual and tactile that not once has my dd said let's stop because I am bored.
I cannot image a parent being bored either or frustrated because a child "just cannot get the sounds" because of the creative and innovative methods the authors have developed.

*If your child is having problems with writing, you may want to skip the writing portion and teach just the letter sounds and then move on. The Sassoon type face is a nice font to learn and my dd loved putting "tails" on her letters.

I feel so fortunate that I found this program first and did not have to sift through program after program to find "that right one" for my child. In the end this was very cost effective and seeing my dd really enjoy reading is worth every penny.

I attended two of the author's presentations at the EARCOS conference in Bangkok recently and found them both thought-provoking and practical. The same is true of this book, which I purchased at the book fair. It's a treasure trove of learning activities that teachers can use to teach students about more than just "how" to use technology. As an IB history teacher I was especially impressed with "The Why List" activity that helps students think critically about what they encounter online and off. I highly recommend this book, especially for fellow teachers of the IB programme.

I'm a librarian and middle school language arts teacher in San Francisco. I came across this book last spring and fell in love with it. I'm now using activities from it with my students and recommending it to all of my colleagues. I was especially excited to hear Dr. Burniske speak at the IRA conference in San Francisco! He's great on paper and in person! I can't say enough good things about this book or its author.

I just bought a copy of this book after attending a workshop that the author gave at the Texas PTA summer seminar. It was the best workshop that I attended and this book is undoubtedly the best thing that I am taking back to my school district from this year's conference. I'm going to encourage fellow PTA members to buy copies of this book and make it recommended reading for every parent and teacher in their school district. And if they don't like that idea then I'll go one better -- make it REQUIRED reading.

I discovered this book through my membership in the International Reading Association, which has listed it among their recommended readings. Although I'm a middle school reading teacher -- and a bit apprehensive about computer technology's impact upon student reading -- I found Burniske's ideas extremely valuable and practical. If nothing else, it was refreshing to hear someone discuss computer literacy as a form of critical literacy that requires higher order thinking skills -- rather than approach it like a functional literacy that requires only technical skills.

I'm not a big fan of "how-to" books, nor am I enthralled with instructional technology, but this is a very smart book that describes interesting classroom activities in response to legitimate classroom concerns. The author is obviously well-versed in the use of networked technology for pedagogical purposes, but he's not infatuated with it, nor does he turn a blind eye to the new problems that it presents. If nothing else, teachers need to read Chapter #2, "Civil Literacy," which suggests that we consider the moral and ethical responsibilities that accompany the acquisition of technical skills when we define "computer literacy." Many school districts are putting a lot of pressure on teachers to find ways to make use of the technology that policymakers have spent a lot of money on in recent years. Anyone who wants to see what a creative teacher can do when experimenting with information and communication technology should read this book. The author doesn't pretend to have all the answers or the "best practices" that will help others solve every problem. What he does have to offer, though, is a fundamental concern for teaching students how to read, write and think critically -- and some excellent ideas for making that happen with the aid of new technologies.

I have purchased this book and the others in the series because of the timeless teaching tool that it is. I wish schools would go back to this book. I myself learned from these books because I was in a private school and I remembered this fact in the attempts to find a good teaching tool for my own son.

The next best thing is Abeka books if you can get your hands on them. My grandmother taught 3 year olds for years and she would start children every year with the tools in this book. I am so glad I found them in stock at Amazon. Every parent should buy them for their children. There is no better textbook available and the method is tried and true.

I was first introduced to these astounding books by accident. While browsing through the campus bookstore I noticed this wonderful book and purchased it for my newborn son's later use. When he turned three I started reading to him from this book and in a very short time he was beginning to pick up the pronounciation, and could follow the story lines. This was sixteen years ago. My son is now in college, doing quite well, and using a partial scholarsip he recieved for achademic excellence. Throughout his school career he was lauded for his outstanding reading ability. His ability can be traced directly back to McGuffy. I strongly recommend this book and the others in this set to any parent who wants to take part in opening the world of reading to their children.

I work in a public high school where many of the middle school students enter freshman year incapable of reading a simple sentence!! This is the legacy of whole language, untested reading theories, radical education ideas, and an environment that is more concerned (out of necessity because no one is disciplining) with behavior problems than with actually educating students. After trying out a number of materials provided by the school district which didn't do the job, I have been secretly using these readers with good success. What they don't know won't hurt them (the district) and will help the students (who are finally learning to read at age 15 and 16!).
Think about it: when these readers were used, we had one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Now (with all of the crazy reading approaches out there) we have one of the lowest in the Western world.
Some complain that these readers are not "multi-cultural" enough. Excuse me? Since when are the fables of Aesop, nursery rhymes, and classic poetry considered bad for our children? I have found that my students thoroughly enjoy these and I have yet to hear my students complain that they are boring or "mono-cultural". It is always the nuts in the school system who ruin everything.

My dad taught me to read with this book when I was six. He took this step when he found out that the public schools were not getting the job done. As a result of McGuffey's Reader and that early intervention, I was reading 3-4 grades ahead of my school mates all through school. A really splendid resource for anyone concerned with their child's education.

My dad taught me to read using this book well before I ever started school. By the time I did get to Kindergarten I was already reading and writing and was always several skill levels ahead of my classmates. My reading comprehension was also very advanced. Now that I am expecting my own child I hope that by using this book he/she will have the same early appreciation for school and learning and reading that I did!