Colorful Illustrations support decodable text, guiding beginning readers to identify, recognize, and use the /h/ sound. Featuring high-frequency words, this authentic fictional narrative also gives emerging readers the opportunity to read with purpose and for meaning while reinforcing basic phonemic sounds. Readers will enjoy meeting Harry and his funny Hippo named Hank. This fiction phonics title is paired with the nonfiction phonics title Hers or His? Practicing the H Sound. The instructional guide on the inside front and back covers provides: * Word List with carefully selected grade-appropriate words featuring the /h/ sound found in the text * Teacher Talk that assists instructors in introducing the /h/ sound * Group Activity that guides students to identify the /h/ sound, decode the words that contain it, and use the words * Extended Activity that provides students with additional opportunities to think about, list, and use words containing the /h/ sound * Writing Activity that guides students to write the letter that makes the /h/ sound

King Lonely Lion Looks at Letters, with its African-based theme, has not been written just to bring enjoyment to children and parents as a bedtime story and to assist educators and home schooling mums in the learning process. It has also been written to be a way to encourage children to increase their vocabulary by searching the pictures in the story for other animals, reptiles, and insects that begin with the same letter of each story page. It is extremely important to understand that King Lonely Lion Looks at Letters has a dual purpose. It has not been written in the traditional alphabetical format of a, b, c, but in a wonderful and adventure-filled way that also allows a child to learn and practice the strokes required in writing the letters of the alphabet when this book is combined with the Phonics for Africa activity book. As the author of this book, I would encourage all parents, educators, and home-schooling mums to remember that the teaching and learning process of our little ones should always be fun, packed with enjoyment, and carried out with a loving heart. I can only hope that you and your children get as much excitement and enjoyment out of King Lonely Lion Looks at Letters as I did in writing it. Aileen M. Gidney

Harry the hippo continues to play his favorite game—but luckily for his friends, it’s hard to hide a hippo! At the playground, Harry’s friends search high and low. Whether he’s under the seesaw, behind the park bench, or hanging precariously from the swing set, it’s hard not to find Harry. But the fun is in the searching, and the friends are always up for another round!

Though the pygmy hippopotamus has been designated as a flagship species of West African forests (meaning that by raising conservation efforts for a single species, an entire ecological region could benefit), very little research has been published on the animal. They are solitary, nocturnal, and highly evasive, and until recent developments in "camera trap" technology, they were considered the least-photographed large mammal species in the world. The information currently available on this endangered species is scattered, limited, redundant, and often inaccurate, and no major volume exists as a resource for those interested in the conservation effort for the species, until now. Phillip Robinson and his coauthors provide a treatment of the natural history, biology, and ecology of the pygmy hippo, along with a discussion of the rare animal's taxonomic niche and a summary of the research initiatives involving it up to this point. The authors show the ways in which the pygmy hippo has come into contact with people in West African countries, both in terms of ecological and cultural impact. This creature has been the subject of local folktales, and is treated as almost mythic in some regions. Information on issues related to captivity, breeding, and zoos is provided. The book is heavily illustrated with original photographs and anatomic drawings. The project should be of use to conservation biologists, zoologists and natural history readers, and will be the definitive single-volume account of an animal that the scientific community has designated to be ecologically significant to West Africa.

A year's worth of worksheets and activity ideas with picture directions in 6 areas: physical skills, vowels, words, letters, consonants, other skills, plus twelve parent checklists of activity suggestions.