Welcome
Thank you for your interest in the Zeb Books! The Zeb Books were designed to teach children ages 3-8 to read and to instill a love of reading. Based in the belief that a child is most sensitive to language at an early age, the concept is to introduce the child to an early phonics reading program that progresses in a sequential order and allows the child to master each skill.
Series 1
Short Vowels & Sight Words - Reviews All Vowels
Designed for children who already know their sounds and letters, and are able to blend them together to hear the word. It starts simple, with each book adding additional skills.
Series 2
Introduction to Long Vowel Sounds - Reviews All Long Vowels
Introduction to Long Vowel Sounds & silent e, as well as double vowel sounds. Series 2 also reviews the short vowel sounds learned in the previous series with added additional sight words.
Series 3
Blends & Digraphs
In Series 3, we review the skills sets learned in series 1 and 2, while introducing blends and digraphs. At this point, we encourage the child to review the series and re-read their favorite books to practice decoding skills.
Series 4
Compound Words & R Controlled Vowels (Phonograms)
The most difficult of the four, this series is a review of all 3 sets and takes the reading comprehension and ability to decode words to a higher level. This is where we see the child’s fluency in reading significantly increase. By this point, the child should be reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level.
About the Program
Students will begin the program with these fundamental reading exercises before moving on to the Zeb Books Series.Letters & Sounds
The program begins by introducing alphabet letters and sound cards that associate the phonetic sound to the letter using visual clues. All vowels are red and consonants are blue.
Peek-a-Sound Game
Next is the fun "Peek-a-Sound" game which re-enforces the sound and letter cards by using the same visual clues. The repetition of this game, which the child can use to self correct, will help the child gain comprehension and memory of sound to shape and symbol.
Blending Sounds
The next activity is Blending Sounds to Make Words, which is designed for the child to learn to “hear the word” as they blend the sounds together. The last activity is Sound It Out cards, which have one, two and three letter short vowels sounds.
Word Recognition
When the child has mastered the recognition of all of the letters and phonetic sounds, has learned to sound out two and three letter short vowel words, and lastly, is successful in “HEARING” the word and they are sounding out without assistance, they are de-coding words and are ready to begin reading the books.
My kids absolutely LOVE Zeb books. As a parent, it is such a relief to see your child excited about learning to read. Wish I would have found these sooner!
About the Author
Zeb Books is written and illustrated by Carol Zerboni. Carol is a lifetime member of the American Montessori Society & has owned her own Montessori Preschool and Kindergarten for 36 years. Carol has taught reading to children ages 3-7 for 45 years using the Montessori approach with phonics. While using different approaches in teaching children to read, Carol decided to create her own books; and thus, “Zeb Books” was born. The use of colorful characters that reappear in many of the books also lend a fun humor to the books. The books were such a success at her own school, Carol was motivated to produce them into a series for children all over the world. Zeb Books are broken up into four series: 1-10 focuses on short vowel sounds & sight words. Books 11-17 introduce long vowel sounds, silent “e” and double vowels. Books 18-25 focus on blends and digraphs. And finally, books 26-30 introduce compound words and “R” controlled vowels. The goal is for the child to be able to read on a first to second grade level by the end of the fourth series. The books are thought to work best with an individual reading approach—one child to one teacher/adult. Zeb books recognizes that while not all children learn to read through phonics, many children have had success learning to read phonetically. We hope you enjoy the books and enjoy the ride!
