MARY JO FRESCH and I have received confirmation of the cover for The Phonics Handbook Poetry Collection, 101 Decodable Poems for Reinforcing Sound Patterns, which will be out later this year as a companion to her recent title, The Phonics Handbook, A Comprehensive Guide for Reading Teachers.
Phonics refers to the basic sounds in our language. The study of phonics is a method of teaching reading, writing, and spelling by correlating sounds (phonemes) with letters or combinations of letters. Mastering the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters allows beginners to sound out unfamiliar words, a vital step in a complex process that leads to comprehension and reading fluency. My 101 poems in this book were written to help teachers demonstrate to students the basic phonemes in our English language. In addition to masterminding the book, Mary Jo provides multiple activities to explain, follow up, and reinforce each sound.
I’ve been thinking that the education book with MARY JO FRESCH coming out in August with Stenhouse will be #19. I just went through the files and can only find 18 counting this one. LAURA ROBB and I have discussed a new collaboration that she plans to propose to a publisher we’ve both published with, but if I’m going to reach twenty, I’ll need to do one more after that. Bring them on!
Here’s the list.
Books co-written for Classroom Teachers as of 1/19/26
2026 The Phonics Handbook Poetry Collection: 101 Decodable Poems for Reinforcing Sound Letter Patterns (with Mary Jo Fresch), Stenhouse 2024: The Fluency Development Lesson, Closing the Reading Gap (with Lynne Kulich and Tim Rasinski), Benchmark 2024 40 Poems for 40 Weeks, Integrating Meaningful Poems and Word ladders into Grades 3-5 Literacy (co-edited with Tim Rasinski), Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2022 Partner Poems & Word Ladders for Building Foundational Literacy Skills; Grades K-2 (with Tim Rasinski and Mary Jo Fresch), Scholastic 2022 Partner Poems & Word Ladders for Building Foundational Literacy Skills; Grades 1-3 (with Tim Rasinski and Mary Jo Fresch), Scholastic 2020 A Guided Practice for Reading Growth, Grades 4-8: Texts and Lessons to Improve Fluency, Comprehension, and Vocabulary (with Laura Robb and Tim Rasinski), Corwin Literacy 2020 Empowering Students' Knowledge of Vocabulary: Learning How Language Works, Grades 3-5 (with Mary Jo Fresch), National Council for Teachers of English 2017: 7 Keys to Research for Writing Success (with Mary Jo Fresch), Scholastic 2016: Rhymes for the Times: Literacy Strategies through Social Studies (with Timothy Rasinski), Shell Education 2013: Learning through Poetry: Short Vowels (with Mary Jo Fresch), Shell Education 2013: Learning through Poetry: Long Vowels (with Mary Jo Fresch), Shell Education 2013: Learning through Poetry: Consonants (with Mary Jo Fresch), Shell Education 2013: Learning through Poetry: Consonants and Blends (with Mary Jo Fresch), Shell Education 2013: Learning through Poetry: Rimes (with Mary Jo Fresch), Shell Education 2013: Let’s Write This Week with David Harrison (DVD series, guide book, with Lauren Edmondson); Phoenix Learning Resources 2009: Partner Poems for Building Fluency (with Tim Rasinski and Gay Fawcett), Scholastic 2003: Using the Power of Poetry (with Kathy Holderith), Scholastic 1999: Easy Poetry Lessons that Dazzle and Delight (with Bernice Cullinan), Scholastic
MARY JO FRESCH discovered that our book — The Phonics Handbook Poetry Collection: 101 Decodable Poems for Reinforcing Sound Letter Patterns — is now set for release on August 12. It doesn’t have a cover yet but we’ll see one soon and I’ll gladly post it. You can preorder it from Amazon or Barnes & Noble now for $34.99. Some of my 101 poems in this collection have appeared in other books and others are new for this title. Either way it’s a lot of poems and I’m delighted to be in another book with Mary Jo, a major name in this field and always an absolute delight to work with.
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