JAX AND REN

A bear cub and a fox pup play together in Miller’s picture book for beginning readers.

Written by a veteran elementary school teacher, this vibrantly illustrated picture book is an appealing motivator for new readers to practice sounding out a clear progression of words that relate the playtime adventures of Jax the bear cub and his fox pup friend, Ren. Reinforcing readers’ comprehension through rhyme and repetition (“Jax and Ren jog to a log. Jax and Ren sit on the log”), each page of the text is rendered in a friendly, hand-drawn-style font and highlights a different activity, culminating in an accidental mud bath (“Ren falls in the mud. Yuck!”) and a nap in a cozy den. Lee’s polished ink-and-watercolor-style illustrations contribute a playful dimension to Jax and Ren and to the simple vignettes, with full-page outdoor scenes of grassy expanses, trees, and flowers under a blue sky. The text includes a list of connecting “story words” ( “a,” “are,” “is,” “the” “to,” and “falls” are featured here) and an illustrated guide to upper- and lowercase forms of the letters of the alphabet and the sounds of consonants and short vowels. This is the first book in the author’s Decode by Heart series.

Lively, visually appealing inspiration for new readers to learn to sound out words.