Ken and his sister, Jen, catch redfish on a happy family fishing trip to the lake. Pastel colors create a summer day mood for this friendly story. Similar beginning and ending word sounds teach word recognition, and slightly longer sentences enhance children’s reading skills.

In this heartfelt story, Jill and Nick’s dog, Sig, goes to the vet after an encounter with an annoyed goat. It’s a good learning experience for the children and Sig recovers, making them happy. Softly colored illustrations deliver the story in short sentences and words that are easy for children to master. This sweet story has good discussion points about pet injuries and protection.

Children are fascinated with large vehicles, and in this charming sibling story, Jill and Rick stop with their father to watch a big rig digging and get a big surprise. Big Jim offers to let them sit up high in the cab with him. Bold colors and nice detail illustrate this early reader adventure story. It’s a good choice for repetitive phonic sounds that enrich a child’s vocabulary and inspire a love of reading.

A family fishing expedition leads Bob and Dot to a group of large rocks where they stand to fish. Rambunctious Bob takes a big hop on a rock and falls, but fortunately he isn’t hurt. Easy-to-sound-out one-syllable words for early readers to explore tell the story on these cheerful pages and encourage reading growth.