Katie the hen

The short books in the Learning to read with Emma and her friends series are a resource for children who follow Historias de Emma children’s stories, to practice their first steps in reading with the accompaniment of parents and seniors. They are available for free in Spanish and English.

They are designed for children who learn to read and write following the Phonetic or Phonics method, whose purpose is for children to recognize and learn the different sounds of letters.

They are very short books. With very simple words and phrases, and supported by illustrations. Thus, the little ones will be able to practice their progress by dedicating a short space of time in each reading session. This brevity will help to keep their attention focused before they log off out of boredom. Even if they struggle to read some of its eight pages, it will be easier to maintain their connection to the reading activity until the book is finished.

Children following the Phonetic or Phonic method start learning the sounds that each letter or group of letters make, and how a change in the order of letters changes a word's meaning. First focusing on the most straightforward letters and how they sound. And, in a following step, learning how sounds can be blended or put together to make words.

Once they have learned all 44 sounds in English and the many different spellings used for each sound, the children will be ready to start to read. They will be able to recognise the different letters or pairs of letters (named graphemes) in a word, say the separate sounds or phonemes, and then blend them together to make a word.

With practice, children will develop their reading comprehension and gain the ability to easily understand the meaning of words. And the meaning of sentences. And they will start to enjoy reading books...

And Emma and her friends want to help children practice reading in their early stages with these short and simple booklets.