Little Books

Little Books was found to have potentially positive effects on general reading achievement.

The Little Books are a set of books designed for interactive book reading between parents and children or teachers and students. The books use thematic topics familiar to children. They are written with high-frequency words and use simple phrases and sentences. They also have strong links between illustrations and text.

One study of Little Books met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards. The study included 325 kindergarten students from 12 rural and urban schools in Newfoundland, Canada. Three variations of using Little Books (at home only, at school only, and both at home and school) were compared to a comparison condition that did not use Little Books.

The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Little Books to be small for general reading achievement. No studies of Little Books (R) that met WWC standards with or without reservations addressed outcomes in the domains of alphabetics, fluency, and comprehension.