Meticulously coded books compatible with synthetic phonics instruction.

“BRI is so great because it is the first time I have seen so much literature in decodable format up through advanced code and MS words. I know of no other series so well designed and well written.”
Primary Teacher & Reading Tutor

Piper Books spreadBRI-ARI, a feast of books for children, contains text that is 100% decodable. Children receive ample practice in handling known letter/sound correspondences in order to read fluently before proceeding to the next book. 

GPCs can be checked in the LISTS OF TITLES, NEW WORDS, PHONEMES, GRAPHEMES at the start of each book. These are also available in Resources. The relevant list should be checked in advance of instruction in order to align the books with school’s/tutor’s current scheme and introduce any new GPCs.  For instance, BRI introduces /ee/ ‘ee’ right at the beginning, in order to demonstrate that English lacks a simple ‘transparent’ code and to prepare children for this central characteristic of the code.  Children, at this early stage, have no problem whatsoever in accepting that the sound /ee/ is represented by the letters ‘ee’; he/she is given ample opportunity to absorb the information and to practise the GPC to mastery by all-through-the-word decoding. Multiple practice results in ease of recognition and becomes an easily transferable skill. For example, in the first stages of reading a child decodes ‘see’ many times and as the relevant GPCs are introduced she/he is then able to handle ‘new’ words such as bee, been, sheep, seen with ease.   

In the BRI series all words are single syllable and fall within a child’s general vocabulary. Each book ‘forces’ the child to look carefully, both inside the word and at the end of the word they are reading, in other words all-through-the-word. Linguistic considerations ensure that children have maximum exposure to function words – e.g. the, this, with – and words with minimal visual variety – e.g. is, Sis, sits, sit, it. This frequent use of function words and visually similar words acts in the manner of a trip switch, in this case cutting out tendencies to guess.

An outline of each story is included and can form the basis of lively discussion as well as helping to engage a child in the subtle little adventures that each tale encapsulates. 

Story questions are included at the end of each book to ensure that there is full comprehension of the story. In addition, the questions present an opportunity for talking about the story and for vocabulary expansion.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS are simple and quick to carry out and will readily establish the optimum starting point (see Getting Started).

The progress of every child is apparent through the increasingly complex text she/he can read.

For information on the SPELL books, (see Ordering).