Harriet Ziefert grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey, where she attended the local schools. She graduated from Smith College, then received a Masters degree in Education from New York University.
For many years, Ziefert was an elementary school teacher. She taught most grades from kindergarten to fifth grade. "I liked it," she said, but she stopped teaching when she had her own sons. When her children were older, Ziefert wanted "a bigger arena" for her work. She went to work at a publishing company, Scholastic in New York City, developing materials for teacher's guides for kindergarten language arts and social studies programs.
"About twelve years ago," says Ziefert in a 1995 interview, "I tried to get a job as an editor, but no one would hire me as a trade editor. So I decided to write my own books." Since then, she has written several hundred books, mostly picture books and easy-to-read books. "I write books very quickly," she says, "in about twelve hours. I rewrite them three times over three days, and then they're done." She writes about twenty books a year.
Great word building book for very young children. Along with math I think that reading is very important. Looking back I can remember that many of my classmates in grade school who had behavioral problems had difficulty reading. Books like this will ensure that a child will continue to explore language as they go on with their education.
I LOVE this series. My very beginning reader lights up when he can read the WHOLE THING all by himself. Because it works with word families and just changes one letter each time as you flip the page, it's a great and low-key way to learn. And they're funny. Highly recommended!
A wonderful first reading book. For SuperWhy fans, this is similar to what WonderRed does on each episode with rhyming words. My 3 1/2 yr old son read this to me after going through it with my husband the night before. While most of it was by memory, if I prompted him to remember what the rhyme was we were working on, he could usually figure out the first letter sound. I've checked out the others from our library and will probably revisit these as we continue to learn to read.
And again in 2013 with our 3.5 yr old daughter. She's especially likes if I sing the rhyming words like Wonder Red.
I love this book. my daughter is learning to read now in kindergarten and these she can do on her own by sounding out and I can tell they help her reading confidence.
Up in Youth Services, we're pretty taken with the Flip-a-Word series, by Harriet Ziefert and Yukiko Kido. This fun series of early readers is designed to show beginning readers the different parts of words -- by flipping a page, "wet" becomes "pet", all with cute, silly (and very charming) illustrations. A good way to begin thinking about the different sounds in words!
Includes the word families '-et', '-ed', and '-am'. Our last book from the Flip-a-Word series from our local library, and I am both relieved and sad to see it so. Why? Well, gentle reader, let me tell you.
This series teaches word families in a fun way making it possible for emergent or "pre-" readers to read it all by themselves. Each book has a couple pages of words from the relevant word families at the back for more practice.
All the books in the Flip-a-Word book series are awesome! Great for children that are learning how to read. These books are colorful, fun, and interactive.
Actually Reader level. Great for phonemic awareness in that there are cutouts on the pages that reveal portions of words from other pages- so bed becomes red, etc.
My son is learning to read with Hooked on Phonics & this book was recommended as additional reading. It was great because most of the words he already knew & could read by himself.
This is the best series of books for kids learning to read. Used these for Mira before Kindergarden and Genevieve has been very interested in reading each book before she starts pre-k.
This beginning reader teaches the word families -et, -ed, and -am.
Bright, engaging, Kawaii style illustrations accompany rhyming words from three different word families. The book's format utilizing a cut-out construction at the bottom of the page cleverly changes the beginning letter to form a new word on the next page. Four words from each word family are given, followed by four phrases using the words.
A note to parents/caregivers is given at the front of the book. The word families, including bonus words, are listed at the back as well as suggested word family activities.
This is an excellent book to help beginning readers understand phonological awareness -- the ability to identify and play with individual sounds in spoken words -- and phonemic awareness -- the ability to recognize that spoken words are made up of individual sound parts.
Wet Pet incorporates lots of sight words using ending in et, ed , and am. Ziefert creates a fun way for early readers to practice their sight words. The illustrations are kept simple yet they depict what the words are saying exactly. In the end of the book all of the sight words are listed to give the beginning readers and opportunity to look over and read all the sight words that were given throughout the book. Overall the book is perfect for beginning readers learning to read.
This phonics approach easy reader introduces the word families, -et, -ed, and -am. Only a few words per page with a nice flip page fun added and fun illlustrations. At the back of the book is a vocabulary page of the words introduced.
My 4 yearold and I happened upon this book at the library. To her surprise, and my joy, she read the first chapter. It was her first time trying to read and she had a beautiful connection with the text and art. She enjoyed the journey the first chapter took her on and found it earnestly hilarious.
Absolutely in love with this whole series. The illustrations are fantastic, my 6 year old loves looking at these and reading them. The year before just used them to introduce her to sight words. It was magnificent.
My four year old nephew read this to me today and the pride he had in himself at the end was so adorable! This is an excellent book to help beginner readers achieve a sense of mastery ❤️
This is a cute little book that has a flip a page effect where children can flip a small flap to see the next word and I think that many young beginning readers will really enjoy doing that. This book would probably not be used much as a read aloud considering it is for beginning readers and there are only a few small words on each page, but it could be used by the teacher to show rhyming to the students. As an independent read, it would be read by a beginning reader and would be nice because the words are rhyming a lot which would make it easier for the reader to sound out the next word because it is somewhat similar to the last word. This will build confidence in the reader! That very important at this stage in learning to read! There are also cute pictures which are sure to be enjoyed by young readers!
I like these clever little books. Especially in the paperback editions as they are the right price and trim size for our leveled reader spinner rack. Each page has a half circle cut out along the bottom that allows a "word chunk" to carry forward to the next page. For instance the title page "wet pet" would be presented on two facing pages. One with "wet" and the other with "pet". The cut out would contain the letters "et" so that the child could see that both words contain the same ending sound.