Straight Talk About Reading: How Parents Can Make a Difference During the Early Years [Paperback]

Hall, a concerned parent, and Moats, a Harvard-educated teacher, have written a well-intentioned resource for parents concerned about children who have difficulty reading. While they address the need to read aloud to children as infants, their book focuses primarily on the needs of preschool and elementary school children. The authors recommend early exposure to reading in order to aid children in their cognitive development and familiarize them with a wide range of vocabulary, the structure of printed words, and story development. A discussion of the phonics vs. whole-language approaches is provided. This work complements Lucy Caulkins's Raising Lifelong Learners: A Parent's Guide (LJ 10/1/97) and Bernice Cullinan's Read to Me: Raising Kids Who Love to Read (Scholastic, 1992), among others. Recommended for public library parent/teacher collections and academic libraries with an emphasis on elementary education.?Lisa Powell Williams, Moline Southeast Lib., IL
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Today's parents are increasingly concerned about the reading and spelling skills taught in schools and are taking charge of their children's education. Full of ideas and suggestions­­--from innovative preschool exercises to techniques that older children can use to increase reading speed and comprehension--­­Straight Talk About Reading will instantly help any parent lay a solid foundation for their child's formative educational years.

Susan L. Hall is founder of the business consulting firm Susan L. Hall & Associates. Through her prior work in the executive education field, she was responsible for curriculum development and has taught over 100 seminars.

Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D., has spoken to thousands of educators through her involvement with Center for Reading Instruction in California and is a frequently quoted reading expert.