Danbury, CT, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hooked on Phonics today launched "Where Will Words Take You?", a new back-to-school campaign focused on the possibilities that begin when children learn to read. The campaign arrives as National Assessment of Educational Progress data shows that 40% of U.S. fourth graders performed below the NAEP Basic level in reading in 2024, up from 2022, highlighting continued challenges in childhood literacy and the role families can play in building reading skills at home.
Learning to read at home is easier than ever with Hooked on Phonics. Workbooks, app, decodable books and celebration stickers help children build confidence to be successful readers.
For parents, a statistic like that can land as one more reason to worry about whether their child is keeping up. Hooked on Phonics, the reading program that has helped families teach their children to read for nearly 40 years, is responding with a different message: parents already have what it takes, and it can start with a few minutes of shared time at home.
That message is at the center of "Where Will Words Take You?”, a new campaign from Hooked on Phonics launching for back-to-school. The campaign is built around a simple, hopeful idea: the words a child sounds out today are the same tools they'll use tomorrow to raise their hand, write the essay, ace the interview, read the map, tell the story, or fall in love with a book that changes how they see the world. Learning to read is the first door a child ever opens on their own, and it leads to every door after it.
It arrives just ahead of the brand's 40th anniversary, reinforcing their role in helping generations of families turn early reading moments into lifelong confidence. It also coincides with the launch of a new vocabulary feature, a new in-app experience that helps K-2 readers move from sounding out words to truly understanding them.
"This campaign is about possibility," said Lauren Ball, CMO of Hooked on Phonics. "When a child learns to read, you're not just teaching them a skill. You're handing them a passport. You get to watch the moment it clicks, and then you get to watch everywhere it takes them: the books they choose on their own, the confidence they bring to a new challenge, the person they become. That's what 'Where Will Words Take You?' is really asking parents to imagine."
Introducing Vocabulary: From Decoding to Understanding
Alongside the campaign, Hooked on Phonics is launching a vocabulary feature, a daily, playful experience built for K-2 readers that helps them move from sounding out words to truly understanding them. Included in every subscription at no additional cost, it introduces a new Word of the Day through picture, audio and playful, hands-on activities, drawn from the same books children are already reading with Hooked on Phonics.
Each word a child learns becomes a collectible icon in a digital sticker book, turning daily practice into a visible streak kids want to keep going. The approach is grounded in vocabulary research which shows that children build their vocabulary effectively when high-utility words from the books they encounter are taught explicitly, with kid-friendly definitions and repeated, varied practice. Our “book words” are selected on exactly that principle.
“As powerful as phonics is, we know that sounding out words is just one of the tools a child needs to become a confident reader. Kids need to learn what words mean to understand what they're reading,” said Tatum Moser, Head of Product. “That's why we built Vocabulary, and why it launches alongside 'Where Will Words Take You?' It's the same idea in action: every word a child understands is one more door that opens for them."
Vocabulary launches in-app in early September, with free K-2 worksheets and resources on syllables, synonyms and antonyms, and word associations already live at hookedonphonics.com
A Childhood Memory, Revisited
For many parents, learning to read is more than an academic milestone. It is a childhood memory. They may remember sitting next to Mom or Dad with a favorite book. Sounding out a difficult word together. Reading the same story over and over. Or the pride they felt the first time they made it through a sentence on their own.
For some, Hooked on Phonics was part of those memories. Nearly 40 years after the brand first began helping families teach their children to read, many of those children are now parents themselves. They are raising a new generation of readers in a very different world, but the experience of helping a child discover the power of words can still be remarkably similar.
More Connection in an Increasingly Digital Childhood
Today's parents are also raising children in a world filled with screens, devices and digital entertainment. As families think more intentionally about how technology fits into childhood, many are looking for opportunities to balance digital experiences with hands-on activities and meaningful time together.
Learning to read creates a natural opportunity for both.
Hooked on Phonics combines interactive learning with physical books and activities, giving children an opportunity to practice skills on screen and then put them to use in the real world.
A child can turn a page. Circle a letter. Write with a pencil. Point to a word they recognize. Read a story aloud.
And a parent can sit beside them while they do it.
It might be 15 minutes at the kitchen table, on the couch or before bed. But those few minutes can become something bigger than reading practice. They become part of a family's routine, a bonding opportunity, and part of a child's memory of growing up.
Where Words Have Already Taken a Generation
When Hooked on Phonics launched in 1987, families learned with workbooks, cassette tapes and eventually DVDs.
There were no tablets. There were no learning apps. Parents could not pull a reading lesson out of their pocket.
A lot has changed since then.
But something else has happened that few education brands have had the opportunity to see play out: the first generation of Hooked on Phonics kids grew up, and words took them somewhere.
They became teachers, doctors, engineers, artists, entrepreneurs and parents.
Today, Hooked on Phonics regularly hears from moms and dads who remember the program from their own childhood and are now introducing it to their children.
"One of the most meaningful things we hear is, 'I learned with Hooked on Phonics, and now I'm using it with my child,'" said Ball. "That full-circle moment is exactly what this campaign is about: not just where words can take a child, but where that journey can eventually lead a family."
For Hooked on Phonics, "Where Will Words Take You?" is both a look forward and a recognition of that history.
To learn more about Hooked on Phonics and its approach to helping children become confident readers, visit hookedonphonics.com or view the campaign here: https://youtu.be/Bwmz90QU-XQ
Lessons take just 15 minutes a day, so it's easy to fit into busy schedules.
About Hooked on Phonics
For nearly 40 years, Hooked on Phonics has helped families teach their children to read. Its step-by-step approach combines interactive learning on an app with physical books and activities to help children develop foundational literacy skills, practice what they learn and build confidence as readers. Today, Hooked on Phonics is helping a new generation of families experience the excitement of learning to read together.
Press Inquiries
pr [at] hookedandcompany.com
A video accompanying this announcement is available here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bwmz90QU-XQ
