CREATESPACE Alpha-Sound Animal Adventures: My First Book of Alpha-Animals

A NEW KIND OF ALPHABET BOOKIn many cases, the first learning book that you as a parent will buy for your child is an Alphabet Book. An Alphabet Book introduces your child to the Letters of the Alphabet and, through accompanying pictures, shows how those Letters are pronounced when reading. The Letter A is pronounced like the first sound in Apple. The Letter B is pronounced like the first Sound in Ball. And so forth. These tra-ditional Alphabet Books imply that, when your child learns all the Letters and their respective Sounds, he/she will then be equipped with the basic skill needed to read.THE TRADITIONAL ALPHABET: OUR BIGGEST PROBLEMUnfortunately, that’s where the problems begin. There are only 26 Letters in the Alphabet. Yet there are a total of 43 distinct Sounds in the English Language. What happens to those other 17 Sounds? How are they pronounced? What Letter, or combination of Letters, represents them on the printed page? Can there be two or more different Sounds that are represented by the same Letter? Can there be two or more Letters that represent the same Sound?This mismatch between the 26 Letters and the 43 Sounds is the source of much confusion for young readers. According to reading expert Diane McGuinness (see below), this discrepancy alone is a major cause of Dys-lexia among problem readers. Even for successful readers, the traditional Alphabet necessitates a myriad of complicated Irregulars and Exceptions that a child must learn through Special Rules and slogans: ‘I before e, except after c.’ ‘When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking.’ And so forth.THE NEW ALPHABET: THE BEST SOLUTION TO OUR KIDS' READING PROBLEMSAlpha-Sound Animal Adventures presents a new kind of Alphabet – an Alphabet of 43 Letters, or combina-tions of Letters (‘Symbols’), that correspond exactly to the 43 Sounds of the English Language (the ‘Alpha-Sounds’). Moreover, the Symbols of this Alphabet are illustrated with pictures of beloved ‘Alpha-Animals’ – Animals whose names begin with (or end with, or include) those Sounds. Through appealing illustrations and engaging stories, your child learns an interesting nature lesson about each Alpha-Animal: Its name, where it lives, what it likes to eat, what it likes to do. Through simple exercises, your child learns to derive each Animal’s Sound from its name: ‘Alligator begins with aaa!’ ‘Bear begins with bbb!’ And so forth. These stories and exercises encourage your child to enjoy and bond strongly with each Animal. As a result, each Animal’s corresponding Symbol and Sound becomes securely embedded in your child’s mind. Animal Adventures: The New Alphabet BookWith Animal Adventures, your child learns all the Sounds of our Language, along with all the Symbols that represent those Sounds. Because they love the Animals they are reading about, they retain what they’ve learned. Thus, as you and your child read this book together, your child becomes equipped to read any word he/she will ever encounter. And all this occurs spontaneously and intuitively, in a spirit of fun and adventure -- with virtually no Irregulars, no Exceptions, no Special Rules, no unnecessary complications or confusions.HELP FOR PARENTSTo make it even easier for parents (and teachers), the 43 Animal Adventures are followed by a user-friendly Appendix – containing helpful tips for reading this book with your child, along with general suggestions for teaching your child to read. The Animal Kingdom (AK) Language Arts ProgramAnimal Adventures is part of a comprehensive, integrated educational program called Animal Kingdom (AK) Language Arts. This program encompasses all seven Language Arts – Phonetic Reading, Vocabulary & Comprehension, Spelling, Grammar, Writing & Composition, and Spoken Language. Because Animal Kingdom teaches through play, it is effective in teaching reading and language skills to children as young as age three. (from the Preface)