Editorial Review

Each of these selections from the Rhyming Words series introduces and repeats one short vowel and consonant combination (ab, en, ug, or am). Within the text, readers add different initial letters to the highlighted rhyming sound (which appears in bold) to create a story with multiple rhyming words. The focus on rhyming words often leads the text to feel a bit random. Ben’s Hen has one of the more coherent stories, in which Ben and Jen try to catch a hen and return her to her pen. In The Bug on the Rug, the titular bug notes, ‘My friend the slug was near the jug.’ A Crab in the Cab sees a crustacean hitch a ride from the beach with a girl, who ‘started to gab with the crab.’ In Sharing Jam and Ham, Tam and a ram named Sam meet Pam, a ‘clam [who] lives near a dam.’ Petelinsek’s simple, cartoon illustrations brighten and sometimes add humor to the text. A concluding word list and rhyming activity reinforce each book’s target sounds. For those in search of specific curricular materials, however, it should be noted that these books do not seem to strictly follow the Science of Reading method of phonics instruction. Words tend to be repeated often, pictures give clues, and skills do not focus on individual phonemes. Overall, however, this is a cheerful early literacy series for beginning readers.