Two-Letter Word Limit for Kids' First Book

June 1, 2019 - PRLog -- Larry Baum, a neuroscientist in Hong Kong, began a crowdfunding campaign on June 1 for his series of books designed to help children learn to read as easily as possible. The twist in these books is keeping the words short—very short.

"Children's books are often peppered with long words like 'elephant' and 'xylophone'," Larry explained. "That's fine if adults are reading TO children. But though I like elephants and xylophones, and even elephants playing xylophones, for kids to learn how to read, long words are probably not ideal. When I was teaching my own children to read, I looked for books with only short words. But I had trouble finding books like that," he said. "So I wrote a book with words no longer than two-letters, hoping that it can help children learn reading more easily. I want kids around the world to have it, so I'll provide it free as an e-book, and at cost as a paperback book." Larry has since gone on to develop his idea into a series by adding a book of three-letter words, and, believe it or not, one-letter "words."

"Each story in the Bo Books has characters, action, and humor (I hope), and beautiful illustrations by Joanna Pasek. The goal is to make it easier for children to read their very first book on their own, and gain confidence so that they can read more at a younger age."

The 1-letter word book, "Y," is about a curious kid who keeps asking her dad "why?" about the things she sees in the park. Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? He doesn't know, but she gets him to open his eyes to the world. With only 1-letter "words," Joanna's illustrations do the heavy lifting of telling this story.

The 2-letter word book, "BO, GO UP!," starts with a couple of children playing with a ball and ends with a much larger ball, because the mom of one kid runs a hot air balloon company and gives them a free ride. To make it easy to read, it uses all capital letters to avoid possibly confusing children about when to use upper case or lower case.

In the 3-letter word book, "Egg Cat," one kid has a cat, and when her friends play with it, they think it's laid an egg.

To help pay for the illustrations or see more details, view the Kickstarter page: http://kck.st/30ZCg3P