Features a shiny ball, a bumpy strawberry, a soft sunflower, and more!

1st level of the Learn to Read series!

Packed with musical audio CDs, flash cards, a workbook, and a library of 24 magical books, Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten is a great way to get started with basic phonics skills. Kids learn about letters and sounds, learn how to put them together to form words, and then read great stories and books using the words just learned. Plus, a CD-ROM with 28 computer activities is designed to reinforce new skills with fun games designed to be played independently.

Research shows that the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read program is:

• Recommended by 97% of users
• 9 out of 10 users say it improves their child’s overall school performance
• 88% of users say it improved their child’s reading level by one or more grades
• 88% of users say it taught their child to read

Study conducted by an independent research firm of 160 consumers, March, 2007.

What s Included:

• 1 workbook with stories and activities
• 10 companion books
• 14 Hooked on Phonics® storybooks
• 3 audio CDs
• 1 CD-ROM
• 2 progress posters to track learning success
• 1 set of fun stickers kids love
• 1 Parent’s guide
• 4 flash card sets

What Parents Say:

• “Not only did he learn to read, he enjoys reading.”

  Colleen

  Mother of Christopher
  

• “The teachers at school are amazed.”

  Briana

  Mother of Brenna, age 4
  

• “He does not struggle at all and likes to take his books to my husband to show Dad he can read.”

  Sara

  Parent
  

• “I really enjoyed watching him learn to read.”

  Colleen

  Mother of Christopher
  

  Windows System Requirements

  Windows 98/2000/Me compatible

  Pentium® Class 133 MHz or higher

  32-MB RAM

  20-MB free hard-drive space

  4X CD-ROM drive

  16-bit depth graphics

  640×480 display

  16-bit sound card

  Standard keyboard and mouse

  2-MB video card

  Macintosh System Requirements

  Mac OS version 7.6 through 10.3

  This program runs in Classic mode for all versions of Mac OS 10 through 10.4 except for Macs with Intel

  120-MHz PowerPC 603e or higher

  32-MB RAM

  20-MB free hard-drive space

  4X CD-ROM drive

  16-bit depth graphics

  640×480 display

  16-bit sound card

  Standard keyboard and mouse

  2-MB video card

In Writing Magic, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine shares her secrets of great writing. She shows how you, too, can get terrific ideas for stories, invent great beginnings and endings, write sparkling dialogue, develop memorable characters—and much, much more. She advises you about what to do when you feel stuck—and how to use helpful criticism. Best of all, she offers writing exercises that will set your imagination on fire.

With humor, honesty, and wisdom, Gail Carson Levine shows you that you, too, can make magic with your writing.

Written for ages 9 and up, How to Spell Like a Champ shows kids how to build word lists, and organize and study them most effectively. How to gain knowledge of etymology, word roots, and spelling patterns from English and other languages. Here are commonly missed words and word patterns— and those feisty (who said “i before e except after c”?) words that don’t fit any pattern. Synonyms, antonyms, eponyms. Suffixes and prefixes. Plus, a whole chapter of word searches and other skill-building games enforces the lessons learned. The book is also a spelling bee primer for the ten million kids who participate in Scripps spelling bees on the local level. It tells what to study, how to study, how much to study. Readers learn what to expect in a bee—whether a classroom contest or the Scripps National Final—and how they can make it through each round by asking the right questions and using their well-honed instincts. Included is an audio CD featuring Dr. Jacques Bailly himself, the official voice of the National Spelling Bee as heard on ABC, ESPN, and in the movies.

Spelling bees are hot stuff: The National Spelling Bee is one of ESPN’s most talked about annual broadcasts, plus bees are the subject of a Tony award–winning Broadway musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; a bestselling novel, Bee Season; an Oscar-nominated documentary, Spellbound; and a forthcoming major motion picture starring Laurence Fishburne, Akeelah and the Bee.

Today’s word: “estimable.”

Writers are like other people, except for at least one important difference. Other people have daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or that smell, but they don’t do much about it.

Not writers. Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions. That’s what a writer’s notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don’t want to forget . . . .

versions of her multi-million selling board books. These whimsical and hilarious books, featuring

nontraditional texts and her famous animal characters, have been printed on thick board pages,

and are sure to educate and entertain children of all ages.

Barron’s popular Painless Series of study guides for middle school and high school students offer a lighthearted, often humorous approach to their subjects, transforming details that might once have seemed boring or difficult into a series of interesting and mentally challenging ideas. Most titles in the series feature many fun-to-solve “Brain Tickler” problems with answers at the end of each chapter.

The formula that started this success story is surprisingly simple: take the classic story of jolly old St. Nicholas, place it in a Louisiana bayou, dress Santa Claus in muskrat “from his head to his toes,” pile his skiff high with toys, and hitch it to eight friendly alligators. The result is a delightful twist on an old and familiar tale. It is Christmas on the bayou.

James Rice (1934-2004), in his long, distinguished career as an author and illustrator, produced fifty-plus children’s books, among them an addition to the “Night Before Christmas series”, “Gullah Night Before Christmas.” With more than a million and a half copies of his books in print, he ranks among the nation’s best-selling creators of children’s books. Mr. Rice died at his home in Hico, Texas in May 2004.

Illuminating the comical confusion the lowly comma can cause, this new edition of Eats, Shoots & Leaves uses lively, subversive illustrations to show how misplacing or leaving out a comma can change the meaning of a sentence completely.

This picture book is sure to elicit gales of laughter—and better punctuation—from all who read it.

Full of silly scenes that show how apostrophes make a difference, too, this is another picture book that will elicit bales of laughter and better punctuation from all who read it.