Book excerpt: Learn to read with the Smithsonian! Developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution and esteemed childhood literacy expert Dr. Adria Klein, the Smithsonian Readers series is designed to encourage reading comprehension with high-interest topics and build reading skills with a carefully designed leveling structure. Level 1 focuses on familiar content and simple text to promote engagement and success for new readers. Smithsonian Readers: Early Adventures Level 1 contains six 32-page topics for beginning readers: Vehicles, Reptiles, Outer Space, Animal Habitats, Insects, and Safari Animals. The fascinating content is accompanied 36 perforated fact cards to further encourage early adventures in reading. Level 1: Early Readers -Basic factual texts with familiar themes and content -Concepts in text are reinforced by photos -Includes glossary to reinforce reading comprehension -Phonic regularity -Simple sentence structure and repeated sentence patterns -Easy vocabulary familiar to kindergarteners and first graders