About:
Through Carmin's 30+ years of work as a Behavioural optometrist and amongst her dealings with children she has observed a rise in her young patients finding themselves a little behind in their reading abilities, leading to unsettlement in these children.
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Carmin, Maya and Greg have teamed up to launch Rally Reading such that we may all rally around and support those among us who find learning to read somewhat of a challenge.
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These works are expanding with others in the community adding to the collection of books that will become available to provide a wealth of material for young and old alike to share in the joy of learning to read. So watch this space!!!
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To paraphrase the first book in the series, "I can read" : reading words, or books, has a purpose and is just one of the many aspects of reading life, many of which we are already mastered in from very young. Learning to read should be fun - there is depth of joy in the illustrations to be bathed in, so don't rush through just reading the text...
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To quote Carmin: "I want them to know that they can read, that they read many things all day long, just maybe not books, yet."
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​You will notice very quickly that the words on the pages are colour coded - read here to understand more as this supports the young reader to 'progress'.
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Rally Reading:
There are many dimensions to this young reader’s book.
Firstly, it is written to be read by an early reader, together with a competent reader who implicitly demonstrates the convention of reading from left to right and top to bottom – the early reader learns through observation and experience. I would encourage you to initially follow the lines and words with a finger until reading across the line becomes natural.
Secondly, together with a competent reader, the book can be read at any age and any level. It starts with short easy sentences with large print, and as it continues, the print becomes smaller and there are more words on a page (as occurs with the progression through reading levels).
Words are colour coded:
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‘Easy’ three-letter words, that can be sounded out phonetically, are printed in Pink
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Orange words are largely phonetic words, and include the sounds: ch, ck, th, wh, sh
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More advanced words, that require sound code knowledge, are in Blue
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Sight words are in Green
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And the rest are in Black print
The objective is that a beginner reader reads every Pink word and the competent reader reads out loud all the rest. As they build their reading skills, they are encouraged to read the Pink and Orange words, and progress to including the Blue words, etc.
Bios:
Carmin practises as a Behavioural Optometrist in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia, where she lives with her husband Greg. One of her many interests is working with children with learning-related vision disorders, assessing them and offering treatment, where appropriate, with lenses and vision therapy. This has naturally evolved into investigating ways to support with developing reading skills. Now that her three sons have grown up, she is also involved in training other optometrists, and finding space to write.
Photo by Stephanie Henn-Hecke
Maya is a talented illustrator who brings the author’s expression to life through delicate colours and joyful shapes. Her love for people and the beauty of facial expressions are evident through the sweetness of the gorgeous pictures she puts to print. Wise beyond her years, Maya shows us that age is no barrier, illustrating her first book at fourteen! Maya’s most precious achievement is not the pictures that look good to the eye, but instead she loves to make a heart sing as it is held in the wash of her illustrations.
Photo by Alan Johnston