The Tot and the Pot Review

Title: The Tot and the Pot
Written by: Lili Henderson
Illustrated by: Chris Baldwin
Published by: Learning Page, Inc. 2005

 This decodable text is about a little toddler named Tom who finds a pot and decides to play with it! In the story, the phonics skill that is targeted is the short /o/ sound. With words like tot, pot, mop, and not, the author did a good job of giving many examples for beginning readers.


I really loved the pictures in this book! Most decodable texts are so focused on the limited vocabulary that there is not a lot of thought put into the actual pictures. Many times, the pictures are black and white but these pictures were really well done. The illustrator definitely put thought and time into creating these pictures for the book.

One of the suggestions I would have for the book is to add one more /o/ word. In the text, there is an older female character named Pam. Instead of naming her Pam, the author could have referred to her as mom which would have added another /o/ word! Any chance the author has the chance to add words that match the skill, they should definitely do it, without making the book seemed forced that is.

Overall, I think this decodable text deserves a 5 out of 5 because there is actually a slight plot in the book, and the pictures clearly had a lot of thought put into them.