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Build early literacy skills with fun children’s books

Welcome to the Hanen Book Nook! Each month we choose a fun children’s book and talk about how parents and educators can make the most of it to build important early literacy skills – the skills that prepare young children for learning to read and write.

What Are Early Literacy Skills?

Early literacy skills (also called emergent literacy skills) are the tools that prepare and support children to learn to read and write when they’re ready. The better these skills are in the preschool years, the better children’s future literacy abilities tend to be. This why early literacy skills are a key part of school readiness programs.

Early literacy skills include:

Meaning Related Skills


Vocabulary – The more words a child knows, the easier it is for them to learn new words and to gain meaning from the stories they hear and will eventually read on their own. Books help to expose children to the higher-level words they’ll encounter when they start school.

Conversation – As children engage in conversation, they draw on their knowledge and experience to make new connections, form new knowledge and build language skills. This lays a strong foundation for understanding the stories they will hear and read on their own.

Story comprehension – Understanding not only what is happening in a book, but why it’s happening, and why characters act and feel they way they do. Story comprehension means being able to read “between the lines” to figure out messages that aren’t explicitly stated, and understanding the larger meaning of the book.

Decoding Skills


Print knowledge – The ability to identify letters, words and symbols on a page and to understand how print works – for example, understanding that print is read from left to right and that letters combine to make words.

Sound awareness – Understanding that words can be broken down into syllables and smaller sounds, and that letters correspond to certain sounds.

How Do Children Learn Emergent Literacy Skills?

Children can learn some skills by listening to an adult read a book from start to finish, but the best way to support early literacy is to turn book reading into a conversation. This means reading with the child, rather than to the child. It means pausing to have conversations about parts of the book the child is interested in, and using comments and questions that encourage the child to think about the book.

In our Book Nook posts, we share strategies for building emergent literacy skills using engaging conversations about the book. As with all Hanen strategies, fun is at the heart of it – when you go with the flow, focus on what your child is interested in, and avoid testing questions that pressure the child, you’re sure to have the kinds of enjoyable interactions that support your child’s learning best.

Explore Book Nook Posts For Building...

Story Comprehension

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Developing Story Comprehension with I’m Not Scared, You’re Scared


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Problem Solving with Stuck


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Relating to Children’s Experiences with Leave Me Alone


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Vocabulary

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Introducing Rare Vocabulary with Big Words for Little Paleontologists


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Building Vocabulary with Rosie Revere, Engineer


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Introducing Rare Vocabulary with Mama Built a Little Nest


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Conversation

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Turn Book Reading into a Conversation with Not a Box


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Turn Book Reading into a Conversation with Little Messy Marcy Su


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Creating Conversation with Good Night, Gorilla


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Print Knowledge

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Building Print Knowledge with My Truck Is Stuck


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Building Print Knowledge with Snuggle Puppy!


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Sound Awareness

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Building Phonological Awareness with Alien Tea


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Building Sound Awareness with Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party


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Building Letter-Sound Awareness with an Alphabet Book


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More Resources For Building Early Literacy

The strategies in our Book Nook posts are drawn from our practical, research-based guidebooks for building emergent literacy in the classroom and the home.

ABC and Beyond™ Guidebook

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I’m Ready!™

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