Reading Reflex

Describes the reading education system and provides detailed instructions and diagnostic tests for use by parents.

A step-by-step program that shows parents, simply and clearly, how to teach their child to read in just 20 minutes a day.

A neuropsychologist shows how outmoded methods for teaching reading have resulted in plummeting literacy levels and offers a new program.

The author of the acclaimed Proust and the Squid follows up with a lively, ambitious, and deeply informative book that considers the future of the reading brain and our capacity for critical thinking, empathy, and reflection as we become increasingly dependent on digital technologies. A decade ago, Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid revealed what we know about how the brain learns to read and how reading changes the way we think and feel. Since then, the ways we process written language have changed dramatically with many concerned about both their own changes and that of children. New research on the reading brain chronicles these changes in the brains of children and adults as they learn to read while immersed in a digitally dominated medium. Drawing deeply on this research, this book comprises a series of letters Wolf writes to us—her beloved readers—to describe her concerns and her hopes about what is happening to the reading brain as it unavoidably changes to adapt to digital mediums. Wolf raises difficult questions, including: Will children learn to incorporate the full range of "deep reading" processes that are at the core of the expert reading brain? Will the mix of a seemingly infinite set of distractions for children’s attention and their quick access to immediate, voluminous information alter their ability to think for themselves? With information at their fingertips, will the next generation learn to build their own storehouse of knowledge, which could impede the ability to make analogies and draw inferences from what they know? Will all these influences change the formation in children and the use in adults of "slower" cognitive processes like critical thinking, personal reflection, imagination, and empathy that comprise deep reading and that influence both how we think and how we live our lives? How can we preserve deep reading processes in future iterations of the reading brain? Concerns about attention span, critical reasoning, and over-reliance on technology are never just about children—Wolf herself has found that, though she is a reading expert, her ability to read deeply has been impacted as she has become increasingly dependent on screens. Wolf draws on neuroscience, literature, education, and philosophy and blends historical, literary, and scientific facts with down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate complex ideas that culminate in a proposal for a biliterate reading brain. Provocative and intriguing, Reader, Come Home is a roadmap that provides a cautionary but hopeful perspective on the impact of technology on our brains and our most essential intellectual capacities—and what this could mean for our future.

Davy, who teleports for government cases, is taken captive by a mysterious group of people who brainwash him for their own purposes, forcing Davy's teleportation-capable wife, Millie, to rescue him.

A wonderful alternative to the tedious workbooks and overly academic approaches usually used. The best little teaching aids I have ever read. With my children as proof, these ways are far above other methods we have tried.

“Smart, funny, and full of awesome . . . everything I look for in a book.” —Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of the Hex Hall series Felicity St. John has it all: loyal best friends, a hot guy, and artistic talent. And she’s right on track to win the Miss Scarlet pageant. Her perfect life is possible because of just one thing: her long, wavy, coppery red hair. Redheads hold all the power in Scarletville—and everybody knows it. That’s why Felicity is scared down to her roots when she receives an anonymous note: I know your secret. Because Felicity is a big fake. Her hair color comes straight out of a bottle. And if anyone discovers the truth, she’ll be a social outcast faster than she can say strawberry blond. Felicity isn’t about to let someone blackmail her life away. But just how far is she willing to go to protect her red cred? “As thought-provoking as it is enchanting.” —Rae Carson, author of the Fire and Thorns trilogy “Clever, wickedly funny, and with so much heart.” —Melina Marchetta, author of Jellicoe Road, a Michael L. Printz award winner

The creators of the acclaimed Phono-Graphix method of reading instruction explain the importance of teaching children comprehension skills and present dozens of exercises and activities to improve those skills--as well as writing ability--in children from six to 18 years of age.