Red Level Elf Books are stories which use only the 22 most basic and constant letter-sounds (sometimes called graphemes). Every single word in the RED level stories is constructed using only the letters a-w (excluding q) where these are pronounced as hard consonants or short vowels. That is :

a as in bat; b as in bat; c as in cat; d as in dot; e as in net; f as in fat, g as in got; h as in hat; i as in bit; j as in jot; k as in kit; l as in lot; m as in mat; n as in not; o as in not; p as in pot; r as in rat; s as in sat; t as in sat; u as in hut; v as in vat; and w as in wet.

Not every word at this level is short or “childish”( for example:discontented, contradict, insignificant ) but every word in these real story books can be read by anyone who can recognise and pronounce just these 22 most simple and regular sounds. Once the learner has acquired the habit of moving across each word in turn from left to right, sounding out each letter in turn and blending smoothly to say the whole word, he or she will have the confidence to proceed to the ORANGE level books.

Depending on the reader’s own preference each book can be read entirely in lower case letters or – by turning the book upside down and starting from the back – entirely in capitals. Thus the earliest experience of real reading can draw on whichever character set the beginner is more comfortable with. The lower case text pages are faced by full colour high quality illustrations while the text in capitals is set beside black and white drawings which can be photocopied for tracing or colouring in.

There are five titles at the RED level:

On Robin Hill	(see inside book)
Wet Socks	(see inside book)
Ragamuffin	(see inside book)
Elf Gets Well	(see inside book)
Santa’s Elf	(see inside book)