The classic book on phonics--the method of teaching recommended by the U.S. Department of Education. Contains complete materials and instructions on teaching children to read at home.

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Anyway, since my first son learned to read so fast and well, thanks to this book, naturally I turned to it again 5 years later when my second son was almost 5. However, it turned out that Collin had no interest in learning to read at that point. I felt no need to rush or pressure him, so I put the book away. A few months later I got the book out again to see if he was interested yet, and he was. Learning to read was fast and fun, just as with my first son.

For both of my boys, the first word they learned to read was CAT. At first, when they sounded out the letters for c-a-t, the sounds were separate, and it didn't sound like any word they knew. So I told them to say the sounds faster and blend them together. After a few attempts of this, "cat" came out of their mouths. I will never forget the looks of joy and amazement on their faces when that happened! They had just figured out HOW to read! That was the turning point, and reading as been easy and enjoyable for them ever since.

A couple of years later my husband said he thought we should start home schooling our boys. At first I didn't think I was up to the challenge until he reminded me that I had already taught the boys to read--and that's supposed to be the hard part. Once a person can read, learning is mostly a matter of self-education (with the parents as guides). He was right!

In summary, I love this book! It has helped my family greatly, and I believe that it would be very helpful for anyone wanting to teach a child to read.

27 of 27 found the following review helpful:

When my son was seven he was two years behind in reading.Feb 27, 2000
By Lucinda-June Chapman
He had failed to learn the kindergarden and first grade words. I read "Why Johnny Can't read" with the fifteen minute primer in the back. I used it with my ADD Hyperactive son. My spelling improved. He was reading at grade level before he went to second grade. When he had just turned 13, was in seventh grade, he was tested and his reading level was freshman in college tenth month. That's 7 years ahead. The only book I used to teach him reading was "Why Johnny Can't Read". It is one of those books that is a must own.

33 of 37 found the following review helpful:

If you have children, you probably need this bookDec 06, 1999
By Stephen M. St Onge "Stephen M. St. Onge"
Why can't Johnny read? Because he's being taught in the wrong way, says Flesch, and he's right. I know. I was being taught that way in 1959, and I couldn't learn to read either. What can you do about it? Well if it's your own child, teach them yourself, using phonics. Flesch lays out a comprehensive course, usable by anyone who can already read. My mother taught me with phonics (she had no training or experience in teaching, by the way), and I quickly jumped to number two in my reading class. But if the question is, what can you do about the failure of our schools, the answer is "Nothing." Here is the only place Flesch falls down. This book was published in 1955. After 44 years, the situation has only gotten worse. This is because the people running the public school system want it this way, and the country's parents won't fire them all. Sad but true. Save your own while you can.

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

Returning to this lifesaver bookSep 21, 2004
By Susan Murphy "Susan Vargas Murphy"
I am the mother of a learning disabled son, who is now 36 years old. Along our journey during his school years, I sought help in a multitude of tutors and agencies. Of all the things that I did, I am very grateful to a tutor who helped him for three years, from the second to fourth grades, who used this book to teach him to read. I have always believed that he would not have ever read had it not been for that very wise tutor and THIS book! All of the exercises were reinforced and reinforced again at home with me and I saw the miracle of learning to read become a reality for my son. Now my little grandson is encountering some difficulty in the first grade and I am ordering this book for my daughter-in-law. The book is a lifesaver!

13 of 13 found the following review helpful:

The Key to Learning to ReadAug 12, 2001
By Ijya C. Tulloss
"Why Johnny Can't Read..." is an excellent handbook for homeschoolers, elementary teachers and teacher trainers. The book offers a convincing argument why knowledge of phonics holds the key for decoding any word one encounters. Learning to read in any other way is but an exercise in memorization of word form - word correspondence which takes up about 600,000 memory slots in our brain. Such memory space could have been better used for other functions. In contrast, just by knowing the 44 phonemes of the English language one can read anything. The book clarifies that because there are 44 sounds and we only have 26 letters of the alphabet, some phonemes are represented by single letter symbols while others by a combination of letters. There are also several forms (letter combinations) of representing the same phoneme. The book further eliminates confusion of spelling by giving the rules for spelling such as the double consonant rule. The book systematically leads the reader to the sequence of learning these phonemes and reading carefully chosen words in a word list, utilizing only the phonemes so far introduced. This method facilitates mastery of new phonemes introduced as well as give suficient review of phonemes thus far learned. With only five main steps illustrated in 72 lessons, at the rate of one lesson a week, one can expect to master phonics in two school years (40 weeks per school year). This handy, systematic and comprehensive guide is a classic, a "must have" book for everyone, especially for those of us who never were taught phonics in our schooling.

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