Book 2 Includes: reviews briefly the instruction of Book One, recalling the letters of the alphabet, with their sounds, by means of the story picture, the type picturel, and the type word. Children who have not studied Book One are thus enabled to lay the foundation for the advanced work of Book Two. After the review of the alphabet the vowels are singled out, recognized as workers, and presented in familiar phonograms and syllables. These phonograms come to be recognized as wholes and need not be separated into their letters. They furnish a key to the pronunciation of new words. They are sometimes spoken of as the core of the word (as ack in "back,", "tack," "sack," and "whack"). The mastery of any phonogram gives the student added power to pronounce all words containing the phonogram. It is a key to pronunciation.
The long and short vowel sounds are presented in Book Two and therefore the diacritical marks are introduced as a means of differentiation. These marks are used only in the type words until the child has become familiar with the phonogram containing the new vowel sound. No attempt is made to suggest the various equivalents for a given sound, except that for convenience a striking group, er,ir,or,ur, is illustrated by the barking dogs, all making the same sound. But such groups as air in "pair," ear in "pear," ere in "there," and are in "care" sometimes present too great difficulty for children at this stage and therefore, are reserved for nBook Three.
Also, the finer distinctions in the vowel sounds are postponed until the child can clearly hear, recognize, and repeat the distinctly different sounds. For this reason the various sounds of o, which are so slightly different as to be frequently confused even by good speakers, are not called to the children's attention in Book Two. The more obscure distinctions are reserved for Book Three. Book Two includes review of Book 1 plus, tch, wh, sw, fl, str, ur, 2-vowel rule, ar, igh, er, ai, ay, three sounds of ea, al, all, aw, er, ir, or, ur, ing, es, four sounds of e, o, u, i, ed, et, en, el, est, five sounds of a,
