Methodology

This catalog answers one question: which decodable books teach the skill my student is working on right now? Answering it honestly means being strict about where alignment data comes from, and this page explains the rules.

Where the data comes from

Every skill alignment in this catalog comes from the publisher's own published materials — scope-and-sequence pages, level descriptions, and downloadable samples on the publisher's site. Each record links the exact source page it was read from, so you can check the publisher's claim yourself.

What this catalog never does: copy alignments from third-party spreadsheets, other people's book lists, or anyone else's research. If a publisher doesn't state what a set teaches, that set either stays out of the catalog, waits until it can be labeled honestly, or is clearly labelled with what we infer is covered.

Getting in takes two passes: each alignment is entered from the publisher's page, then independently re-checked against the same source before publication — and every record is reviewed by a person before it goes live. Nothing here is published straight from an automated web scrape.

Publisher-stated vs. inferred

Every record carries a confidence field. Publisher-stated means the alignment is a direct mapping from the publisher's own copy. Inferred means it was deduced from sample pages or book titles.

The 10-skill vocabulary

Publishers describe the same phonics concepts in different words — one program's "magic e" is another's "VCe syllables." To make series comparable, every set is mapped to one shared vocabulary of ten skills, ordered roughly as most programs teach them:

  1. CVC & short vowels — Consonant-vowel-consonant words with short vowel sounds — cat, sit, mop. The first step in most phonics scope and sequences, and the entry point for brand-new readers.
  2. Consonant digraphs — Two consonants that spell a single sound: sh, ch, th, wh, ck. Usually introduced soon after CVC words.
  3. Consonant blends — Two or three consonants pronounced in sequence, each keeping its own sound — st, fl, mp. Some programs call them clusters (CCVC and CVCC words).
  4. Glued/welded sounds — Letter chunks taught as a unit rather than sound-by-sound — the -ng and -nk endings, plus all, am, and an. Some programs call these welded sounds.
  5. Silent-e (VCe) — The vowel-consonant-e pattern, where a final silent e makes the vowel say its name: cap becomes cape. Publishers call it magic e, sneaky e, or VCe.
  6. Vowel teams — Two vowels working together to spell one sound: ai, ay, ee, ea, oa. Often taught as long-vowel teams first, with variant teams later.
  7. R-controlled vowels — Vowels whose sound changes when an r follows them — ar, or, er, ir, ur. Often called bossy r.
  8. Diphthongs & variant vowels — Gliding and variant vowel sounds: oi, oy, ou, ow, oo, au, aw. Typically one of the last single-syllable patterns taught.
  9. Multisyllabic words — Words of two or more syllables, including compound words and syllable-division patterns — the jump from short decodables to longer text.
  10. Morphology & affixes — Meaningful word parts: prefixes, suffixes like -ed, -ing, and -s, and common roots. The bridge from decoding to vocabulary.

Each set's primary skill is the new skill it introduces, according to the publisher.

Prices and links

Prices come from the publisher's own store and carry the date they were checked — treat them as a snapshot, not a quote. Buy links point to the publisher first; some sets also link to Amazon or Bookshop.org. Some links are affiliate links, but that never affects which books are listed or how they're aligned. Full disclosure here.

Corrections

If you find an alignment that doesn't match what the publisher says — or you are the publisher and we've read your scope and sequence wrong — email decodablebookfinder@gmail.com. Corrections are applied to the record and the crosswalk, credited if you want.