This timeless story about sports, winners, and losers incorporates one-syllable words with similar sounds and introduces words that begin with the letter z. The story is packed with excellent situations for discussing feelings when one loses or wins, situations most children have experienced. Using primary colors to illustrate the soccer game, coupled with the facial reactions of the team, it’s easy to see which team won and which one lost.

When a cat grabs the rag Pat uses to help her father clean the van and runs away with it, Pat gets very upset. Pat and Nat chase the cat across the vibrant pages and introduce new words that sound alike in this early reader. Context clues guide young readers to experience the story as they learn to correlate sounds with letters or groups of letters and begin to read.

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.

The delightful characters of a cat, a rat, and Pat fill the pages of this cheerful beginning reader. The bold colors light up the story and encourage children to use the context clues to imagine what’s happening as they learn to pronounce simple words with similar sounds.