This book addresses the problems of reading and the teaching of reading in the United States, where 43% of children test below grade level in reading and 42 million adults are functionally illiterate. The book contends that both the whole language approach and phonics are not viable methods of teaching reading and explains why. It argues that the ability to read depends on the ability to hear the sounds of English correctly and on a working knowledge of the "spelling code," which is the key to how English spelling works: what letters and letter combinations go with which sounds. This connection of sounds and the symbols that represent them is crucial to learning how to read. This method is scientifically proven and has transformed so-called dyslexics and troubled readers into expert readers and spellers. Chapters in the book are titled: (1) Reading Report Card; (2) Readers Reading: How Do We Do It?; (3) Transcribing Talk; (4) Alphabets: Splitting Sounds; (5) The English Alphabet Code; (6) Science to the Rescue; (7) The Child's Mind and Reading; (8) The Proof of the Pudding: Reading Programs That Work; (9) Beginning Reading Right; (10) Mastering the Advanced Code in Reading, Writing, and Spelling; (11) Helping Those Who Didn't Make It; (12) Remedial Reading Programs; and (13) What's a Parent to Do? Besides the usual notes and references, a glossary of relevant terms is attached, as are both a subject and an author index. (NKA)