I kinda knew that ‘q’ and ‘u’ are an inseparable pair, but it was only until this year that I learnt that “q and u stick together like glue”. It’s a spelling rule that Stef Wade uses to great effect because she employs her imagination to spin a story about what happens when ‘u’ which forms pairs with other letters like ‘un’ and ‘us’ feels overwhelmed about having to be the best friend of ‘q’. One day, ‘u’ decides to isolate herself on an island. This sets off a spiral of events. Other digraphs, including ‘sl’, ‘wr’ and ‘gr’, decide that they are too close for comfort and spilt up. This then leads to chaos in the alphabet kingdom because every letter is by himself or herself and no letters want to work together. Upon witnessing the mayhem, ‘u’ decide to patch things up with ‘q’ - and both of them start to shout ‘QUIET’! And all the digraphs make amends and stick to each other again.
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I summarise this story because I love how it ingeniously incorporates some exposure to phonemes into the plot. Also like the creative use of personification as the letters behaved like humans, with their quirks and whatnot. Parents will surely approve of this book because it is fun, educational and entertaining. Who wouldn’t love a book that teaches preschoolers about phonics?

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Due to my delightful experience with “Call it quits”, I borrowed the second book on ‘q’ as I wanted to see if I would pick up anything new about the 17th letter in the alphabet. And I did! Apparently, other words besides Iraq end with the letter ‘q’: umiaq and suq. I don’t mind admitting that in all my illustrious years as an English teacher, this was the first instance I encountered these words. My English has improved!
#theletterq #bookstagram #whatareyoureadingsg #phonics @nlbsingapore