Category: Books

Books by D. Passmore

Best Handwriting Picture Book Series

Kids can learn letter formation visually from a storybook

These story-based picture books help children learn how to form lowercase letters the right way—through engaging characters and visual storytelling, not repetitive worksheets. Young learners can visually see the similarities in the letters. Each book guides young learners step-by-step, showing how letters are shaped and why, so children naturally understand proper formation as part of the story.

Designed for preschool and early primary years, this series builds strong handwriting foundations while keeping learning enjoyable and meaningful. It’s a gentle, effective way to support early writing skills—perfect for parents, teachers, and anyone looking to help children develop confident, correct handwriting from the very beginning.

Why This Approach Works Better Than Traditional Handwriting Books

Grouping letters by similar shapes helps children build both muscle memory and visual recognition more effectively. When letters are introduced in carefully chosen groups, learners begin to notice patterns in how letters are formed, making it easier to remember and reproduce them correctly. This structured approach supports consistent, confident handwriting from the very beginning.

By practising letters with related shapes, children strengthen fine motor skills through repeated, meaningful movements rather than isolated drills. Over time, this reduces common issues like letter reversals and confusion, as children develop a clear and reliable understanding of how each lowercase letter is formed.

The Four-Book Set is available together in one complete book

On amazon

Pirate Letters Handwriting Storybook By D. Passmore

Display cards, posters, and worksheets support the picture books

Handwriting Cards 4 sets Pirate Letters

Spelling to the Rescue

Unlocking the Magic of Vowels: A Creative Way for Kids to See Spelling Patterns

As educators and parents, we know that learning to read and spell can be challenging for young students. Traditional drills and rote memorization often leave children frustrated or disengaged. But what if we could make spelling visual, playful, and memorable—so that kids can see the patterns as well as read them?

That’s the idea behind my new series of books, Pure Joy Phonics. Designed specifically to help students connect visual storytelling with vowel spelling patterns. Each book brings letters to life in a world where they have personalities, feelings, and relationships—making the abstract rules of spelling something kids can actually see and understand.

In: The Vowel Tree

Take the letter “u”, for example. In these books, “u” is a curious little letter who doesn’t like to be alone at the end of words. When it finds itself lonely, the silent “e” swoops in like a superhero, giving “u” a partner and forming the magic of words like blue and glue. With clever illustrations and playful narratives, children can visualize why letters behave the way they do—and the patterns stick.

This approach does more than teach spelling; it encourages children to think about words as a system, noticing the relationships between letters, sounds, and meaning. It also empowers educators and parents with a fun, ready-to-use tool that makes reading instruction engaging and effective.

Whether your students are struggling spellers or eager word explorers, these books offer a fresh way to build confidence and curiosity. With each page, children are not just memorizing rules—they’re discovering the personalities of letters and the stories behind the words they read every day.

If you’re looking for a new method to help students connect visually to spelling patterns, this series brings both magic and learning into every lesson. Invite your students into a world where letters have lives of their own, and watch as the rules of spelling become something they can see, remember, and enjoy.

The first two books are in print, and more books are on the way. Look for them on Amazon.

The Vowel Tree By D. Passmore
The Vowel Tree Christmas Tale Book

The Vowel Tree By D. Passmore

The short vowels use teamwork to make more vowel sounds.

The Vowel Tree is a playful phonics story that teaches young readers how vowels work together to create long, short, and diphthong sounds. Through teamwork, friendship, and fun, children build strong spelling and reading skills while learning that vowels are better together.

The vowel adventure starts with the short vowel sounds and moves through long sounds with magic E, Vowel teams for long and short sounds, and includes the other helpful consonant letters like tricky Y, W, and gh.

What is a Vowel Tree?

Designed to support early literacy development, this engaging phonics story introduces vowel teams in a memorable and meaningful way. By combining spelling patterns with lessons about friendship and cooperation, The Vowel Tree helps children build confidence in reading and spelling.

When to use ue or ui?

Pages that explain the reason for spelling patterns. See the letter U peeking down from the corner for page. Letter U does not like to be alone at the end of words. Letter E comes to the rescue. They stick together like glue.

This helpful hint combines visual links to spelling and reading.

This mnemonic visual for UI for juice is a student favorite. Letter U is filled with juice, standing next to letter I, which is tall like a drinking straw.

The book is filled with many more sounds and spelling tips.

The Vowel Tree invites young readers into a world where A, E, I, O, and U learn the power of teamwork. As the vowels grow and connect, children discover how single letters join together to form long vowels, short vowels, and diphthongs.

Designed to support early literacy development, this engaging phonics story introduces vowel teams in a memorable and meaningful way. By combining spelling patterns with lessons about friendship and cooperation, The Vowel Tree helps children build confidence in reading and spelling.

Perfect for classrooms, homeschooling, and shared reading at home, this book makes vowel sounds easy to understand—and fun to learn.

Great for:

  • Early readers and emerging spellers
  • Phonics and vowel team instruction
  • Kindergarten through early elementary classrooms
  • Parents and teachers looking for engaging literacy tools

The book will be released soon! ISBN  978-1-7644532-1-9 Paperback

Look for it on Amazon first. Author page D. Passmore

Holiday version of the Vowel Tree Book

The Vowel Tree Christmas Tale Book

The Vowel Tree Christmas Tale Book

Festive Phonics Adventure as the Five Vowels Team up to Decorate their Tree.

Join A, E, I, O, and U on a festive phonics adventure! As the five little vowels work together to decorate their Christmas tree, young readers discover how the vowel sounds grow from single letters into powerful vowel teams. This colorful, holiday-themed story blends early reading skills with lessons of teamwork, friendship, and fun—making phonics merry and bright. Supports early literacy skills, including vowel recognition, vowel teams, and phonemic awareness.

Phonics Vowel teams Christmas. Ideal for read-alouds, small-group phonics lessons, and holiday literacy centers.

Available on Amazon By D. Passmore

More books in the Vowel Tree series are on their way. Be sure to follow me on Facebook to get all the latest updates.

You may also like my pirate-themed handwriting books.

Heart Word Mapping Manual

How to teach the heart words just got easier with this mapping manual for teachers. Decoding and encoding by the spelling patterns. Sound articulations and spelling rules all organized in one place.

Detailed sight word mapping by sounds, with articulation support.

Help is at your fingertips with these colorful tabs on the teacher’s manual. Low Prep organized Teacher’s Guide. Support your students by explicitly teaching heart word mapping sorted by sounds. Differentiated levels, cumulative instruction, phonics, and spelling patterns. Student worksheets. Articulation images with detailed explanations. Great for reading intervention!

Heart words grouped by the sounds make it easier for students to practice and retain the information.

Unique Heart Word Decoding Elkonin Boxes

  • Full Red Heart – Focused heart sound skill
  • Heart Outlines– Previously learned pattern
  • Green line – Decodable sound
  • Green line with a Dark outline – Long vowel that says its name
  • White line with X – silent letter

Articulation Instruction

  • Mouth image with airflow lines
  • Voiced and unvoiced marking under bottom lip ~
  • Detailed descriptions of lip and mouth movements
  • Helpful descriptions of sound: bursts, vibrates, air pushes

Spelling Patterns – Tabs

Vowel Sounds, Schwa, 2 Long u sounds, Digraphs, R-Controlled, R-Trigraph, consonants, th/th voiced and unvoiced, wh

Consonants – Begin c, k, ending ck, ending k, ke, ic, soft & hard g, dge, ending l, ll, le 

  • more

s = z sound

The suffix – ed has 3 sounds

contractions

tricky Y

  • more

How will this help you?

Well-organized resource. Easy to grab and teach with No-prep work.

Heart Words are orthographicly mapped for you. Explicit phonics.

Code-based spelling instruction.

Color-coded decodable sounds are green or darker outlines for long vowels.

Heart Words and decodable words are grouped together by similar sounds, which makes teaching them easy and sound-focused.

Sound checks on the back cover.

Vowel articulation on the last page.

Detailed sound articulation directions are at your fingertips.

Student worksheets are versatile to use. Follow the link to see the video.

Cumulative Instruction

Heart Words and High-frequency words grouped by sounds are presented in a sequential and cumulative format.

Starting with the simplest words first and then progressing to more advanced words.

Example – short a

at,

an,

and,

am,

as * ( this one is the heart sound, s = z) The other words were decodable.

How to Teach the Schwa Heart Words

Letter g, Mastering Sound and Shape

lowercase letter ‘g’ can be a tricky one to learn, both in terms of its sound and its shape. While these challenges are quite common, understanding the reasons behind them can help students overcome confusion. They can master the letter with ease with these helpful tips. Let’s break down two main difficulties students often face when learning the lowercase ‘g’.

Clever handwriting trick for making the letter and the hard g sound.

Watch this super simple video a few times. Learn to make the lowercase letter g in three easy steps and remember the hard /g/ sound with the word “girl.”

See /c/, /a/, /g/ girl. YouTube Video Here.

Pure Joy Teaching. Handwriting Trick for the Letter /g/.

This video was made at the request of a mother who was trying to teach her daughter to make the lowercase /g/ correctly and remember the letter sound, too.

Understanding the Lowercase Letter ‘g’: Overcoming Common Struggles

For many students, the lowercase letter ‘g’ can be a tricky one to learn, both in terms of its sound and its shape. While these challenges are quite common, understanding the reasons behind them can help students overcome confusion. They can master the letter with ease with these helpful tips. Let’s break down two main difficulties students often face when learning the lowercase ‘g’.

1. Letter Sound Confusion: The Soft ‘g’ and the “j” Sound

One of the biggest challenges students encounter is distinguishing the sound of the letter ‘g.’ When we say the name of the letter “G,” it sounds like the “j” in words like “giraffe.” This can lead to confusion because the letter ‘g’ actually has two distinct sounds in English:

  • The hard ‘g’ sound, as in “go” or “girl.”
  • The soft ‘g’ sound, as in “giant” or “giraffe.”

Because the letter name sounds like a soft “j,” students can mistakenly believe that the letter always makes the soft sound. Helping students practice both the hard and soft sounds of ‘g’ can clear up this confusion.

2. The Shape of Lowercase ‘g’: Confusion with Capital G

Another challenge is the shape of the lowercase ‘g,’ which can easily be confused with the capital letter ‘G.’ The lowercase ‘g’ is unique because it has a loop at the bottom that faces the opposite direction of the capital ‘G.’ This can be difficult for students to grasp, especially since both letters look somewhat similar. If they have learned the capital letter first, they may influenced by that initial shape curving the other direction.

To help students remember the lowercase ‘g’ shape, it’s important to practice writing the letter step by step:

  • Start by drawing the letter /c/.
  • Then, make it into the letter /a/ by sliding up and down to the line.
  • Finally, complete the letter by drawing a little tail that hangs out to the left side. Very simular to the letter /j/ tail.

By focusing on these specific steps and practicing the direction of the curve, students can avoid mixing up the lowercase ‘g’ with its capital counterpart.

The Importance of the Starting Point

The lowercase letters c, a, and g, all have the same starting points. Unlike most lowercase letters the /c/ shaped letters move in the opposite direction of normal English reading. The /c/ shaped letters start at the top and move from right to left. This book is helpful for teaching these letters.

C Pirate Letters Handwriting Storybook

Tips for Teaching the Lowercase ‘g’

  1. Use Visual and Auditory Cues: To reinforce both the sound and shape of ‘g,’ this video can be a helpful tool.
  2. Practice Writing: Give students plenty of opportunities to write lowercase ‘g’ repeatedly, encouraging them to focus on the starting point of the letter /c/. and the direction of the curve. It can also be helpful to trace the letter first, then try writing it independently.
  3. Focus on the Sound: Practice distinguishing between the hard and soft ‘g’ sounds in various words. Reading aloud and singing songs with the letter ‘g’ can help students become more familiar with the sound.

Conclusion

While the lowercase ‘g’ may seem tricky at first, understanding the reasons behind the confusion can help students master both the sound and shape of the letter. By practicing consistently and breaking down the challenges step by step, students can overcome their struggles and gain confidence in their learning journey. With patience and the right approach, the lowercase ‘g’ will become second nature!

Sound Wall Frame for Intervention
Pure Joy Teaching

When Walruses Want Waffles, by D. Passmore

Silly questions with lots of funny “w” words for answers.

How far from their far north snow-covered homeland would walruses be willing to waddle, for waffles?

A funny question with silly illustrations. Lots of words start with the letter w like: wigs, wallets, whales, and wrestling too.

This book was created to fill a void in my “W” letter library, for my letter of the week curriculum. It also is a beautiful artistic tribute to the land that I love, covered with snow and beautiful auroras.

Hidden within the pictures of the story are a few little rubber ducks. Try to spot them all.

You can find it here on Amazon. Kindle or Paperback.

This could be fun to use with older students too. Challenge them with a writing task about the waffle hunting adventures.

Once I got started making waffles, I just could not stop there. Check out my waffle letters theme for handwriting. The yellow butter drips show the direction the letter should be written. It is all good letter formation practice. Start your letters at the top and follow the butter drip.

You can add some math with waffle counting too. When I was teaching preschool, my students loved any game that let them feed animals. Check out this feed the walrus waffle printable. You can make your walrus to feed with this simple printout.

Have Pure Joy Teaching

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More Books By D. Passmore

If a Pig Could Paint, would he hog all the colors?

Then the story leads the reader towards an answer to the title question. What if a pig could paint? What would that look like?

An artistic twist to an animal painting adventure by D. Passmore

This book was written to help young students relax and enjoy painting. It introduces a few examples of different styles of painting. Then the story leads the reader towards an answer to the title question. What if a pig could paint? What would that look like?

The kids in my classroom loved it and laughed at the pictures. Specially the Pig-o-Lisa. Some kids recognized the Stary-dog-nights and some of the classic paintings from history. The book has lots of questions, which lead the kids to think of answers as the book progresses.

After that, we did some painting projects with the theme ‘What would cats, dogs, and pigs paint like? It got the kids thinking. Some kids jump to the task quickly. Others needed to work through the questions. How would the animals hold the brushes? Would they use their paws, tails, or whole body to paint? It was a good way to pose comprehension and inferred questions. Then follow it through with the actual painting.

If a Pig Could Paint? By D. Passmore – Pure Joy Teaching

You can take a look at Amazon Here. Kindle or paperback.

Spelling and story sequencing cards can be found on TPT Here.

Pure Joy Teaching

More books by D. Passmore

Back to School Handwriting Program

letter shape patterns help to avoid letter confusion.

Engaging Handwriting Orton-Gillingham Styled Letter Tracables and Story Book Lessons

This book and handwriting program has fun visual links to help students see the letter shape patterns and avoid letter confusion.

Great for back-to-school, colorful pictures with an animal and pirate theme.

Find the book here on Amazon. The printables can be purchased on TPT

Pirate Letters Handwriting Storybook By D. Passmore

Foundational skills of handwriting and vowel knowledge are a huge treasure for kids. Treasure-seeking pirates find things in the sand to trace around. This is how they learn the new skill of handwriting. Pirate-themed word-play helps create a memorable and fun storyline, with playful use of the letters: r, i, c, and x. The similar grouping of letter shapes makes it easy for them to learn the four-letter groups quickly. Special attention is shown to the importance of the vowel letters.

Handwriting letter groups Pirate letters

This makes handwriting a fun adventure with easy-to-trace images that follow a logical pattern. Orton-Gillingham Style letter grouping.

Less letter confusion with b and d reversal problems solved.

The colorful bird points out the all-important vowel sounds and helps lead the pirates to a second discovery “the vowels are a treasure.”

Four Letter Groups

Four books in one. The complete lowercase letter handwriting storybook collection.

Treasure-seeking pirates find things in the sand to trace around. This is how they learn the new skill of handwriting. Pirate-themed word-play helps create a memorable and fun storyline, with playful use of the letters: r, i, c, and x. The similar grouping of letter shapes makes it easy for them to learn the four-letter groups quickly. Special attention is shown to the importance of the vowel letters. With the help of a chatty parrot, the story has incorporated a few vowel sounds. Each letter has a specific visual cue to demonstrate the correct letter starting point. The letters are organized in clusters to help correct letter reversal errors. Each book in the series shares a close relation to Orton-Gillingham’s Style of handwriting instruction groups.
Handwriting is an adventure to treasure.

The four titles included in this book: R’s Pirate Letters, C Pirate Letters, I Pirate Letters, X Pirate Letters.

Like wise the use of posters and cards for this writing lessons are great match this book.

Visual Links to Handwriting Groups

1. r, n, m, h, b, p – Letter r is seaweed on the sand, the pirates trace the /r/ shape and that helps to make the other letters in this group. These are the dive down, slide up, and hook letters. Dark blue water on the bottom of the cards.

2. c, a, g, d, q, o, s, e – Letter c is half a coconut. The pirates trace around it in the sand to make the curved letters in this group. These are the /c/ curved letters that share the same starting point. Letter e was added to this group. (funny story in the book for letter /e/) Tallgrass on the bottom of the cards. Great for sand trays.

3. i, j, l, t, f, k – Letter i, are tracks made by turtle-hatchlings. The pirates copy the straight line letters in the sand. Light blue water on the bottom of the cards.

4. v, w, y, x, z, u – Letter x, is the v shape letters it traces around a shark’s tooth. These are the slanted line letters. Letter u was added to this group. (funny story in the book for letter /u/) Tree trunks on the top of these cards. The letter x is the title of the book because of course the pirates use the all important x to mark the spot for the treasure.

C Pirate Letters Sand Tray
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