Research shows that early instruction in phonics is the first step to reading success. Now Step into Reading is introducing a fun and comprehensive, educationally based phonics program designed to help kids learn to read, step by step! Developed by a phonics expert, each box includes eight brief books that cover a specific range of phonic skills. The boxed sets build on each other, and book by book, skills are reviewed and reinforced as new ones are introduced—giving kids the tools they need to crack the code of letters and sounds. A sample of featured skills: • more digraphs (or two-letter blends that form a single sound) likebl-, qu-, andcr- • additional two-letter phonograms (word parts) like-nk, -ck,and-sh • three-letter, long-vowel phonograms like-ade, -een, -ive, and-oke “We now know—because science tells us—what teaching methods are most effective. The basics work. Reading programs that include phonics and phonemic awareness work.” —Remarks from Mrs. Laura Bush onPreparing Tomorrow’s Teachers at the House Education and Workforce Committee, March 14, 2002