We believe any phonics program must be balanced with plenty of children's books. Reading to children from a very early age is essential for the awareness of story progression, and phonemics and vocabulary development, not to mention just plain fun. The key to using real literature at the very beginning of formal reading instruction is in using books that are predictable.
Children can quickly follow and read along with the book after the first few pages.
They are about concepts that are very familiar to most early readers. The children can easily identify with the story line and the characters. There is a good match between the text and its illustrations. This is an important key in a book's readability. In the selection from Brown Bear, Brown Bear above, the pictures that accompany the text essentially tell the story for the child after he has become familiar with the pattern.