Syllable Divided Books.

In the 1700s and early 1800s, students were typically taught using a syllabary and a speller, such as Webster’s Blue-Backed Speller. This method teaches reading using syllabic phonics. Our Webster’s way page explains this method in detail. By the time they completed the speller, students could generally read well enough to tackle any text—often their first was the King James Bible. 

After mastering spelling, students would progress to a reader, where words were sometimes divided into syllables to aid decoding. Parker’s First Reader is an example of such a syllabicated text. By the late 1800s, many stand-alone books were published in this style, often with titles including the phrase "In Words of One Syllable” or “Words of Easy Syllables.”

Words with 2 or more syllables were divided to make them easy for children to pronounce, instead of typical dictionary division. Syllables that end in a vowel were pronounced with a long vowel sound, syllables that ended in a consonant were pronounced with a short vowel sound. 

After being taught basic syllables such as those shown in the excerpted Syllabary from Webster’s Speller below, students would be given words with syllables divided according to their pronunciation. The syllable divided words were divided to match the teaching in the syllable tables in the syllabary. 

For example, the dictionary will divide the word “rabbit” as “ra-bit” to show the consonant “b” as pronounced with the 2nd syllable, but spellers and syllable divided books divide it as “rab-bit” to help children pronounce the word with its short vowel sound.

    Speller division: rab-bit 

    Dictionary division: ra-bit 

Noah Webster’s son, William G. Webster, in his 1866 revision of his father’s Blue-Backed Speller, “The Elementary Spelling Book,” explains:

These “Elementary Tables” were also known as a syllabary. Excerpts from Noah Webster’s syllabary are shown in the picture above. They were a guide to pronouncing later syllable divided words. The syllabary and its use are explained on our Webster’s way page.

After students mastered the syllabary and speller tables, some readers began with words divided into syllables. These books then gradually transitioned into regular, undivided text as the students learned to divide syllables on their own and matured in their reading skills. Examples:

Abbott's First Reader by Jacob and John Abbott

Tropical Reading Books by Eliza Caroline Phillips

These syllable divided books are useful for both beginner and remedial readers. Reprints of Josephine Pollard’s one-syllable books, The Life of Washington and The History of the United States, are available on Amazon.

For free options, you can download and print several one-syllable books from Google Books. One standout is Lives of the Presidents—it’s informative, and you can print sections for one or two presidents at a time.