Anna and the Letter A (Alphabet Friends)

Rating:
Summary: Teaching the youngest readers all about the letter "A"
Review: "Anna and the Letter A" by Cynthia Klingle and Robert B. Noyed is the first volume in the "Alphabet Friends" series which devotes one 24-page volume to each letter of the alphabet. The idea is to give beginning readers a fun way of mastering letter recognition by telling an entertaining story highlighting a single letter. In "Anna and the Letter A" we meet Anna, who loves to eat apples. Throughout the book words with the featured letter are highlighted, with miniature color illustrations above important words in the text (rebus drawings of Anna, Angelica, apples, ants), and color photographs. The goal is for these read-to books to become stories that younger children can read for themselves and this simple, solid approach should help big time.

The first thing young readers learn is the difference between the capital letter "A" and the lowercase letter "a." Children are also introduced to the different sounds that "a" can make, the long sound in a word like "ape" and the short sound like the word "apple." After the story there are fun facts about animals, ants, apes, and apples, as well as lists of words in which "a" pops up at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of words. Not every time the letter "a" appears in this book is highlighted, so young readers will have ample opportunity to find the letter for themselves as they start to read this book for themselves. They will also find suggestions for books about the letter "A," ants, apes and apples, all of which are geared towards this age level as well.

Rating:
Summary: Teaching the youngest readers all about the letter "A"
Review: "Anna and the Letter A" by Cynthia Klingle and Robert B. Noyed is the first volume in the "Alphabet Friends" series which devotes one 24-page volume to each letter of the alphabet. The idea is to give beginning readers a fun way of mastering letter recognition by telling an entertaining story highlighting a single letter. In "Anna and the Letter A" we meet Anna, who loves to eat apples. Throughout the book words with the featured letter are highlighted, with miniature color illustrations above important words in the text (rebus drawings of Anna, Angelica, apples, ants), and color photographs. The goal is for these read-to books to become stories that younger children can read for themselves and this simple, solid approach should help big time.

The first thing young readers learn is the difference between the capital letter "A" and the lowercase letter "a." Children are also introduced to the different sounds that "a" can make, the long sound in a word like "ape" and the short sound like the word "apple." After the story there are fun facts about animals, ants, apes, and apples, as well as lists of words in which "a" pops up at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of words. Not every time the letter "a" appears in this book is highlighted, so young readers will have ample opportunity to find the letter for themselves as they start to read this book for themselves. They will also find suggestions for books about the letter "A," ants, apes and apples, all of which are geared towards this age level as well.