Reviewed with Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook's Mouse's Hide-and-Seek Words .PreS-K. These effective new books from the Step into Reading series are labeled phonics--ready to read. In Pup, this means using rhyme and repetition; in Hide-and-Seek Words , it means finding small words in big ones. A small, black-and-white dog greets his new owner, but unlike the other animals, who quack, honk, and oink with impunity, Pal says nothing. When a cat meows at him, Pal finally speaks his piece: Bow wow wow. Prereaders can use their skills to match the animals with their sounds. The book extends the concept by introducing sounds made by inanimate objects such as trains and tugs. The colorful pages feature sprightly, simply shaped characters and animals. Hide-and Seek Words stretches readers a bit more with its word-within-a-word concept. In one picture, for instance, the busy mouse rides a train; in the next picture it starts to rain. The word rain is highlighted in red within the word train . Plate/late, trip/rip, string/ring are just a few of the combinations, all of which work very well with the peppy art.

"'Tick tock,' goes a clock. 'Chug, chug,' goes a tug. A train calls, 'Choo choo!' A baby cries, 'Boo-hoo!'" Bo asks his dog, Pal, to speak up, but Pal remains quiet until faced with a cat. The short, stilted sentences are sometimes nonsensical, but the rhyme and picture clues will be helpful to newly emergent readers. Children just sounding out words will have success with this book.