The first in a planned series of phonetic readers, Neil the Eel is a whimsical story featuring the vowel sound in "Neil", "eel" and many other words that describe Neil's antics. Neil the Eel enables the young reader (or new reader of any age) to develop phonemic awareness and the concept that one sound can be represented by a variety of spellings. Neil the Eel helps to stretch the beginning reader's vocabulary because he or she can see in the rich illustrations the objects and actions that the words represent; or the reader can infer the meanings of more abstract words through the imaginative behavior of the character Neil. Neil the Eel engages the ear, the eye and the imagination of young readers- in short, the essential components of learning to read.