Hi! We’re Brittany & Jackie
We’re the teachers and moms behind Hooked on Comics.
As educators, we’ve been trained in the Science of Reading through IMSE’s Comprehensive, Morphology, and Phonemic Awareness courses, as well as Lexia Learning’s LETRS. We have seen how important and life-changing it is for students to be taught how to read with an explicit, systemic approach. As a reading specialist, Jackie runs structured literacy intervention groups for students in grades K-6. As a classroom teacher, Brittany runs a structured literacy block daily that is differentiated to meet all learners’ needs. As teachers, we wanted to be using decodable texts with students so they could practice their reading skills in a sequential way, but we struggled to find books that kids found engaging and fun.
But that’s not where Hooked on Comics came from. Although we knew the need existed because of our classroom experience, Hooked on Comics was born from our own children’s struggle to read. When Brittany’s son struggled to learn how to read due to Dyslexia, she knew he needed nightly reading practice. He hated decodable books, but he loved comics. She reached out to Jackie to see if they could put the two together. Once we began making them, we knew our decodable comics could help more than just one child.
Our comics are written in a series-format with recurring characters, cliffhanger endings, and lots of humor. Our own kids love to help develop storylines! Because of their comic-layout, interconnected stories, and emphasis on fun, even the most reluctant readers can’t get enough of our books. Best of all, if you’re teaching the IMSE OG scope and sequence, they’re 100% decodable.
Our books were featured on NHPR and have been vetted and approved by the Reading League and are now being used by teachers all over the world. Because they are sold as a digital download, you can print and re-print again and again!
Oh—and Brittany’s son now happily does his nightly reading. It’s amazing what an engaging book can do, isn’t it?
About Our Comics
Our comics follow a research-based sequence from IMSE Orton Gillingham. When using their Comprehensive curriculum, our comics are 100% decodable.
What does it mean to be decodable? It means that our comics only use phonics concepts that have been explicitly taught. For example, if kids have learned letters C, A, and T and their sounds, the comic can include the word cat. If they haven’t learned the letter P, the comic won’t include the word pat. Our comics also include irregular words, known in IMSE as red words, that students learn through practice and memorization. Examples of a red word include things like the, you, or my. Each comic has its own concept which is identified on the back panel of each book. It also lists the red words, total word count, and other vocabulary worth preteaching.
Our comics follow a series-format. Each series contains 6-7 books that tell an interconnected story. Our characters recur from level K through 2, so students get to know them. Filled with lots of humor, cliffhanger endings, and silly storylines, young readers get hooked! The most common thing we hear from our students and kids when we finish a comic is: “Can we read the next one??”
Best of all, our comics are entirely DIGITAL. This means you can print and reprint as many as you need! We encourage students to write in their comics and color the interior illustrations as well!
