About the Creator

Stories Behind the Sounds was created by Alana Johnson, an Australian educator passionate about helping children build lasting phonics knowledge through meaningful story connections.

As a classroom teacher, I often saw students struggle to remember spelling patterns when they were taught in isolation. While children could learn a sound during a lesson, recalling and applying that knowledge later was often much harder. This inspired me to explore a different approach.

Stories Behind the Sounds grew from a simple belief: children are more likely to remember a sound when it is connected to a memorable character, story and experience. By giving graphemes their own personalities, challenges and adventures, each book helps transform abstract spelling patterns into meaningful learning connections that support recall, reading and spelling.

Grounded in the Science of Reading and explicit phonics instruction, the series combines evidence-based teaching with engaging storytelling to help children build stronger grapheme-sound connections and greater confidence as readers and writers.

What You'll Find Here

• Character-driven phonics storybooks

• Science of Reading aligned resources

• Explicit grapheme and spelling pattern instruction

• Printable literacy activities for classroom and home learning

• Memorable tools that support phonics recall and retention

My Teaching Approach

I believe children are more likely to remember a sound when it is connected to a memorable character, story and experience.

That belief sits at the heart of every Stories Behind the Sounds resource. Rather than teaching spelling patterns in isolation, each grapheme is given its own identity, helping children build stronger and more lasting sound-symbol connections.

Every resource is designed to support:

• Explicit phonics instruction

• Meaningful story-based learning

• Memorable grapheme characters

• Repeated grapheme exposure

• Stronger recall and retention

• Science of Reading aligned practice

Thank you for visiting Stories Behind the Sounds. I hope these resources help make phonics learning more meaningful, memorable and enjoyable for the children in your life.