For more than 10 years, our research team has examined ways to facilitate emergent literacy development in young children in ways that explicitly foster children’s engagement with print. This book was written to provide the community with materials generated through several federally funded studies that investigate ways to increase the emergent literacy skills.

Funded by the Kellogg Foundation, The SOLYLUNA Book Reading Club promotes families’ access to books for young children in an area of high illiteracy in Mexico. Workshops and materials are currently being developed and shared across Mayan villages in Yucatan State in a collaboration between the Crane Center and Solyluna School in Merida, Mexico.

1,200 children in four states were followed longitudinally over five years in a LAARC study designed to substantially increase our understanding of language- and reading-comprehension development for children from pre-kindergarten to third grade. During the study, the LARRC team also developed a 25-week curriculum supplement designed to improve language skills to improve reading comprehension.