What are decodable books? New readers who are learning to sound out words need books that teach or reinforce the letter-to-sound correspondences they are learning. This enables them to build those connections in their brains, without relying on repetition or cues to guess what words might be. Decodable books are best used with readers who already have some foundation with the basic sounds of letters, particularly the short vowel sounds and consonant sounds, and are working on putting those sounds together to make words. (Updated 2025)
Tad the Cat
In Bloom books feature a couple short chapters that focus on short vowel sounds and sight words. It may help readers to go over the sight words and digraphs at the end of the book with an experienced reader prior to starting to read. https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=In%20Bloom%20(Cherry%20Lake%20Publishing)&searchType=series
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Tad the CatReach for A Peach
Phonics Fun books each focus on particular decoding and phonics skills using rhyming word families. Readers will benefit from having an experienced reader help them with some words that may be outside those rhyming families. A "Make Your Own" activity at the end encourages readers to create their own rhymes. https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?custom_edit=false&query=series%3A(phonics%20fun%20cleary)&searchType=bl&suppress=true
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Reach for A PeachThe Yak Pack Comics & Phonics
Yak Pack is a fun series of comics that contains 6-10 stories in each book focusing on particular decoding skills. Book 1: short vowels, Book 2: digraphs, Book 3: Blends. Readers will benefit from going over the “In this story” section before reading and the “After you read” section at the end of each story with an experienced reader. There are also separate comics that focus on sight words. https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=yak%20pack%20comics&searchType=title
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Yak Pack Comics & PhonicsA Duck in A Sock
This short chapter book series builds decoding skills over the course of each book, and is designed for a young reader and an experienced reader to share together. Book 1: digraphs (ck, sh, ch, th), Book 2: blends and digraphs (nk, ng, tch, dge), Book 3: vowel + silent e (a_e, i_e, o_e, u_e), Book 4: r-controlled vowels (ar, or, er, air). https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=Meg%20and%20Greg&searchType=series
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View A Duck in A Sock