From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2–While the cover claims that children will learn short and long vowel sounds as well as consonants, blends, and diagraphs, and perhaps peripherally this is true, the CD actually does an admirable job of reinforcing word families. The female narrator introduces word families, starting with "-at," then gives examples of words that fit into the family. A short, silly song using these words follows and is repeated as listeners are encouraged to join in. The same pattern is followed for other word families. The pattern is simple and repetitious, but never boring, and is perfectly suited to the intended audience. The narrator is gently enthusiastic, pacing is excellent, and sound quality is clear and crisp. Even better, the music is quite catchy and you can't help but sing along. Admittedly some of the words are a stretch for the intended audience—"domain," "Yale," and "hick" to name a few—and are not defined, but they do reinforce the featured sound, thus meeting the program's goals. The song about the "-oke" family even has a nice anti-smoking message in it! Toss the enhanced CD into a computer and you can print out worksheets for each word family in Adobe Acrobat. This enjoyable product would be a fun addition to phonics instruction.–
Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.