Let's Explore!: Explore with Dora/Isa's Little Fish/Dora's Lost List/Stuck in the Mud!/Friends Out West!/Hope You Can Come!

Really good book for beginning readers. Has a lot of high frequency words and easy words to sound out, plus familiar characters from the Dora cartoons

Our daughter was a huge fan of Dora -- Dora shoes, shirts, umbrella, you name it! This book set was a great incentive for her. We worked through them together, and by the time she finished book 12 she had "got it" and moved right into reading other books and continuing to learn. The vocabulary review at the start of each book was useful; sometimes we would work on those first, other times she would just want to try the story. I was a bit surprized at first because they sprinkle in some long words in many stories (e.g. rocket ship) instead of the just the usual single syllable "See Spot run" stuff. But I became a believer -- usually she could figure them out by context without much trouble, and they got her over any "that's too long for me" fears. Overall: if your child loves Dora, I think this is a very successful and motivating program to begin learning to read.

My 4-year old grandaughter loves this book. And it helps her with sounds.

We love this box set and the second Dora phonics series too. Each book focuses on one phonics lesson (the first series runs through the vowels, the second gets into consonant blends, etc). Also, each book has a little phonics lesson on the inside cover that introduces phonics sounds and new words, high frequency words and challenging words. The stories are fun and feature all the familiar characters. Our kids love them and are so excited to be able to read them too. There is even one story where Dora and Boots are nice to Swiper and invite him to a party!

If your kid is a Dora fan, this is a nice set to give them. It's comprised of 12 short books featuring Dora and her friends taking part in various adventures, all with the trademark bright colors. Each book emphasizes words with a certain sound -- for example, long e, short a, "ch" or silent "e" ending (as in "have" or "love"). My daughter just turned 2, so we just read and enjoy them together, without getting wrapped up in the learning-to-read aspect. But when she is ready, the short, simple sentences and large type will undoubtedly help, as will each book's focus on a particular sound.