Alpha-Mania Adventures: The Great Riddle Race: A Sound Manipulation Book

Alpha-Mania Adventures is an innovative five-book series that ignites imagination and gives pre-reading children the foundation to become successful readers in the future. These exciting and colorful stories are the perfect tools to teach pre-reading skills through play. Storytime at home or in the classroom becomes fun and educational.

Each adventure combines the heroic quests of five spirited kids with phonological awareness and phonics, the first two components necessary to become a good reader.

The Great Riddle Race (Book 5 of 5) practices sound manipulation. Sound manipulation involves deleting and/or substituting sounds with within words. For example, if you remove the /h/ sound from the word hook, and replace it with a /b/ sound, you get the word book.


The story: In this book, the Alpha-Maniacs have each awoken to find a puzzling note. As always, they put their heads together and discover the clues fit together to form a mysterious riddle, one that requires them to manipulate the sounds within words. Led by the friendly Switch-a-Roo, the gang solves a series of riddles all over Letter Lagoon, leading to a reunion with some old friends, and an amazing discovery!

Every Alpha-Mania Adventures book includes:

• An introduction to phonological awareness and tips to use the book to its maximum benefit
• An exciting story that will charm young audiences
• A Find the Hidden Objects phonics activity embedded in the illustrations
• Bonus Activities related to phonological awareness, phonics, and/or letter formation
• Easy-to-use guides on Letter Sounds and/or Letter Formation

Join the Alpha-Maniacs on their fifth and final phonological pirate adventure with The Great Riddle Race!

Jennifer Makwana is a certified teacher at Ruth Rumack's Learning Space, an educational support company based in Toronto, Canada. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.), a Bachelor of Education, and a diploma in Early Childhood Education. Since 2008, she has instructed and expanded the Alpha-Mania(R) program at Ruth Rumack's Learning Space. Jennifer lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Ruth Rumack is the founder and executive director of education of Ruth Rumack's Learning Space. She has a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Psychology and a Bachelor of Education. Ruth created the Alpha-Mania(r) program in 1996 with the aim of introducing emergent readers to the magic and excitement of the alphabet and phonological awareness. This series brings the Alpha-Mania(r) program to life through the adventures of the Alpha-Maniacs. Ruth lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Ruth Rumack is the founder and executive director of education of Ruth Rumack's Learning Space. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in Psychology and a Bachelor of Education. Ruth created the Alpha-Mania(R) program in 1996 with the aim of introducing emergent readers to the magic and excitement of the alphabet and phonological awareness. This series brings the Alpha-Mania(R) program to life through the adventures of the Alpha-Maniacs. Ruth lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.