Recommended Red Rocket Readers Decodable Books for New Readers

Recently, Flying Start Books sent me a box of 96 Red Rocket Readers, their Decodable Explorers reading program for new readers that has a scaffold approach aligned with The Science of Reading and Letters & Sounds. If you’re teaching someone to read, whether you’re a parent, teacher, or tutor, you’ll want to know about these readers!

I consulted with my reading expert friend Dr. Marnie Ginsberg of Reading Simplified about the Red Rocket Readers since not all decodable books are created equal. Here’s why she liked what I showed her.

It’s a traditional phonics approach (NOT speech-to-print).

Each book has a clear focus on the focus skill which is helpfully explained in the front jacket cover. The back jacket has a list of words to practice.

There’s great variety of appealing illustrations and photos which include diversity.

There are short plots, meaning, it’s not nonsense, and nonfiction topics.

The mix of others sounds within the book is well-researched and important (100% decodability is not actually good for children.) The mix of single-syllables and multi-syllables works well and is important. The books also have a good mix of strictly decodable words and some more challenging words which is good. (Set for Variability.)

The text is in a text box and separate from the illustration

There are NOT too many words on a page

For those of you who want to research more, you can check out the scope and sequence.

Find out how to buy these Red Rocket Readers on their website where you can also download tools, worksheets, lesson plans, and more.