FAQs

• Can parents buy Jelly and Bean books?
• What age range do Jelly and Bean books cover?
• Do parents need training to use Jelly and Bean books?
• Are the books too 'babyish' for older children?
• Why do you not use capital letters in the first books?
• Why do you not begin with the letters 's, a, t, p, i, n'?

Q. Can parents buy Jelly and Bean books?

A. Yes. Simply add the books to the basket and you can buy online with a credit card.

Q. What age range do Jelly and Bean books cover?

A. Jelly and Bean books are suitable for the brightest, youngest children in the Reception Year to older children struggling to read in later school years. They are structured to teach children to read from any age. You start at the beginning and work through them series by series.

Q. Do parents need training to use Jelly and Bean books?

A. As long as parents understand the phoneme/grapheme correspondence for each sound/letter in the English language they should not encounter any problems. For guidance see the downloadable teaching tips.

Q. Are the books too 'babyish' for older children?

A. No. Children up to eleven years old are successfully using the books.

Q. Why do you not use capital letters in the first books?

A. I think it is illogical and counter-intuitive for children to have to use capital letters when they are only just beginning to learn the sight and sound of each letter of the alphabet. When they are just coming to terms with 'a' (and not in this font as they never write 'a' like this) as a phoneme and a grapheme, they do not need the extra complication of a completely different symbol, 'A', to represent the same phoneme at the beginning of a word. Similarly, 'd, D, e, E, r, R, b, B, g, G, h, H'.

Q. Why do you not begin with the letters 's, a, t, p, i, n'?

A. The letters 's, a, t, p, i, n' may be arranged to form the greatest number of CVC words (sat, pat, sap, nap, tap, tan, pip, pin, tin, nit, tit, sit, pit, sip, sin, tip, nip) as well as the two-letter words 'is, in, it, an, at, as', but none of these words are nouns which can be illustrated as a living character. I needed a 'cat' to draw and make into a character. I also only wanted to use one connecting word, 'on', as well as 'a'. The letters 'a, c, h, m, n, o, t' gave me three nouns to illustrate (cat, mat, hat) and the connecting words 'a, on'.

Got a question? If you have any queries about the Jelly and Bean books or any of the support materials please get in touch and Marlene, the author, will answer your questions.