Children who have difficulty acquiring basic skills need additional help and encouragement. In "Helping Children with Reading and Spelling, " Rea Reason and Rene Boote have written a highly practical manual which provides detailed frameworks for assessment and teaching which will be widely used by class teachers, particularly those working with children who have specific literacy difficulties. The book does not adopt any one theoretical stance, but provides a comprehensive and workable collection of ideas, including photocopiable pages which can be used as teaching and assessment resources and case studies to illustrate the methods suggested. The emphasis of the book is on reading for meaning and enjoyment, together with the systematic practice of word and letter recognition skills.