This boxed set includes 12 books, each of which teaches phonics skills to early readers. The stories all involve four dinosaur friends (T-Rex, Cam, Al, and Meg) who play together while simultaneously teaching your kids long vowels, short vowels and consonants. Each book is a different topic (i.e., dinosaur band, camping out, birthday party, bath time, etc.), and the books are numbered to create a learning series that builds on sounds learned in the earlier books in the series.

The characters are fun for young readers, yet the phonics skills are challenging. The only negative I have found about the book are the illustrations. The pictures are black and white, and the lack of vividness on the page does make the set rather dull. I will say that this has not deterred my son from reading several of them each night since we got the set. The entertainment he gets from the book is the actual reading, and not the illustrations.

Bottom line is that the phonics set is a great value at under $10.00, and comes in a handled carrying case. The characters are enticing to kids and the stories are relatable and entertaining. The phonics skills are sometimes challenging and may be frustrating to the youngest readers who are still figuring out these sounds. However, because of the range of sounds and combinations, it t seems like this is a set that we will be able to work with for a long time.