[Updated to add - I attempted to order a bunch of these but they now appear to be out of stock indefinitely, so I don't know that they are actually available anywhere!]

I saw this recommended on a listserv for pre-readers and was interested to see how they worked. The book opens with a page to parents, explaining how to use word groups and some general suggestions of practicing reading. There is also another explanatory page about word families, suggesting kids practice finding other words in the word family. This book begins with the "ice" family. The first page shows ice cubes in a cup of lemonade and is captioned with the word "ice". The second page shows two big-eared mice and there is an m, which is placed next to a cut-out showing the word ice which creates "mice." This continues, introducing the words "rice" and "spice." Then there are four sentences using the words, "mice on ice," "mice eat rice," "spice on rice," "spice on ice and rice." This is repeated with the "unk" family, and the "ight" family.

The book ends with a list of all the words introduced in each word family, a page with all the words in different colors and fonts for kids to search and find, and a few simple activities.

I asked my associate for her feedback on these as pre-readers since she has a teaching background and has spent a lot of time, you know, teaching kids to read. Her thought was that the word families were too advanced for an actual pre-reader but otherwise it's not a bad concept. There are a lot of different choices in the series, so I think that they will be an excellent addition.

Verdict: If you are looking for more educational or curriculum-type easy readers for your collection, these are a good choice.

ISBN: 9781609054106; Published 2013 by Blue Apple; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

A cute beginning reader book that focuses on rhyming words and word families. My two-year-old quickly got the hang of it and started pointing out the pictures of the rhyming words, repeating them and the rhyming words. I have already put the other books in this series on hold at my local library, and think that this is a fun way to ease children into reading. ( )