Teaching is actually shockingly slow to react and adapt to new research (or even old research, tbh) We largely get away with it because children are wired to learn and often do so despite teaching, not because of it.

This article implies that these methods of teaching reading explain the general sense of declining literacy, and I can see where they’re coming from. If you’re working this hard for every single word on a page because the cognitive foundations simply aren’t there, how can reading be pleasurable?

I have never heard of whatever’s described in this article! These strategies seem useful for an intermediate reader, perhaps, someone starting to read more complex texts where they need to use context clues to make meaning, but of a whole text, not individual words.

But I saw over my years teaching and now as my daughters learn to read, that phonics is a kind of magic. You give them good quality, mainly decodable texts and you teach comprehension skills at the same time and you support those going slower or coming against barriers.

And the older teachers felt that there was no joy of reading in the programmes, and were concerned that comprehension skills were not taught. So they made sure to separate out phonics from literacy and English to still get in all that rich text learning.

This is fascinating.
When I first did training in phonics as a year 1 teaching assistant, I was skeptical. It seemed to me wrong to pretend to 5 yr olds that English is a phonetic language when you’re going to have to admit the truth a few years later

Losing the plot On Dylan Thomas and trying to figure out how to tell a story.

open.substack.com/pub/rymkecha...

I agree!

THE APPLE AND THE PEARL by Rym Kechacha is currently 25% off in the Waterstones 2026 Pre-Order Promotion! #WPreorder

Use the code OCTOBER25 on their website or app, now until 23.59 October 17.

https://bit.ly/WSpreorder

I received some fab ARCs recently!

The Apple and the Pearl by @rymkechacha.bsky.social - “a ballet troupe of lost souls perform an ancient dance for the faerie realms” Thank you @titanbooks.bsky.social

The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell - “a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps”
Thanks Del Rey

Proof copies of The Apple and the Pearl are here! So I'm taking the opportunity to hassle you about the best dance film ever made: The Red Shoes

open.substack.com/pub/rymkecha...

Perils of Love: Review of Moussa Ould Ebnou’s The New Eve Rym Kechacha Under Review:The New Eve. Moussa Ould Ebnou, translated by Paul Roochnik. Iskanchi Press, October 2025. Moussa Ould Ebnou’s The New Eve, translated from the Arabic and French by Paul R…

Perils of Love: Rym Kechacha reviews Moussa Ould Ebnou's THE NEW EVE, translated by Paul Roochink (@iskanchipress.bsky.social)
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/10/03/p...

The contrast between the words and pictures in that one is so delightful!

If we all read Shirley Hughes, we would all be able to infer tone and there would be no media literacy crisis

The Raven Scholar is brilliant, you’ve got a few very happy hours ahead of you there!

Fed up with the (often wrong) AI summaries google foists upon you these days, I’ve made my default search engine ecosia. It’s undoubtedly problematic in some way and maybe I won’t get what I’m after as quickly but wading through the hallucinations is such a waste

The cover of The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death is bright, with many colours and the three titular characters represented in a modern almost pop art style

A beautifully written Slavic fantasy featuring the circus and a tiger from @titanbooks.bsky.social. The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall #BFSReview britishfantasysociety.org/review/the-l...

This is an interesting thread and also interesting as it mirrors a lot of discussions in the literary fiction, which is also dying out as a category in many ways.

(Obviously, anyone who has read my novel Metallic Realms knows both of these are conversations on my mind...)

I’m really enjoying noir as a mode, or maybe what writers can do with its tropes and vibes as they explore something else. I’m thinking Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, Sara Gran’s detective series and Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi which i just finished

I loved this. A similar feeling of savouring, even if it was heartbreaking.

It sucks as a feeling but there’s no summer without winter. Something that’s really helped me is taking up something creative but unconnected to writing, something i can do badly and happily. Cross training for creativity! (I’m learning an instrument)

The Apple and the Pearl coming from Titan Books February 2026

The first of many (sorry) substack posts about my new novel
rymkechacha.substack.com/p/the-apple-...

The news is out! The Apple and the Pearl coming February 2026

Today we're thrilled to be able to share the cover reveal for Rym Kechacha's upcoming faerie tale fantasy THE APPLE AND THE PEARL, due for publication 3rd February 2026 from Titan Books.

Cover design by Julia Lloyd 

Read more: tinyurl.com/698xt2x4

@titanbooks.bsky.social

This book by @eleanorfinley.bsky.social is kind of the non fiction version of Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. It gave a me a tiny tendril of hope

Never an early adopter but yep, it’s lovely so far!

Love the way the @britfantasysoc.bsky.social sends amazing reading material like surprise! Have something super interesting as a treat

This is loads of fun! I’m really loving anything with alternate history vibes at the moment- any recommendations?
#booksky

LOVED The City of All Seasons by @oliverklangmead.bsky.social and Aliya Whiteley. Just gorgeous writing all round

It’s finally raining! The berries are happy and so is this foxglove #bloomscroll