The playground is buzzing with consonants—but something’s missing.
When the vowels hesitate to join the fun, the consonants quickly discover they can’t form words without them! With a little encouragement from the versatile letter y, the vowels step in and bring language to life.
Red Rover, Red Rover, Send a Vowel Over is a joyful celebration of teamwork, inclusion, and the essential role vowels play in communication. With whimsical illustrations and clever wordplay, this book helps young readers understand vowel sounds and word formation while building confidence and curiosity. A perfect companion to The Mighty Silent e! and The Day Punctuation Came to Town, this story is ideal for classrooms, libraries, and bedtime reading.
In the Language Is Fun! Series, Fun Characters Teach How to Use Punctuation in Words and Sentences:
- The Little i Who Lost His Dot
- The Day Punctuation Came to Town
- The Mighty Silent e!
- The Compound Noun Treasure Hunt: A Picture Book about Compound Words
Praise
"Readers will immediately want to jump into these familiar playground scenes, depicted in richly colored, simple images with a folkart flair. Just as quickly, youngsters will feel for the the five lowercase vowels who aren’t sure how they fit in with all the little consonants having fun playing tag, four-square, and hide-n-seek together. This use of lowercase letters, an element educators will welcome, adds to the relatability for youngsters. Concern builds when the little consonants form two lines to start Red Rover, Red Rover and realize they can’t spell any words. Yet the vowels still aren’t sure they can help. Little o worries about rolling around too much. Little i fears losing its dot by running too fast. And as usual, Little e just stays silent. The mood is low when Little y makes a speech to reassure the vowels that being different is special. Some may find Little y’s input hits a bit too hard on differences versus, perhaps, collaboration or confidence. Yet the tone stays light and breezy as those other themes play out on the subsequent pages. Little h and Little i join up and say ‘hi.’ The Red Rover line made by Little r, n, c, and m breaks into two new lineups that include vowels to spell ‘run’ and ‘come.’ Readers are delicately guided over several spreads to unscramble and then decode (or at least be inspired to recognize) all the little letters now aligned to spell out a happy message. As the letters cheer, “Hooray, hooray, the vowels saved the day!” the everyone combines for even more friendly wordplay."
—Children's Literature
"Readers just learning to read will enjoy the book, probably read to them, and will get to know the letters better; but also, older readers will enjoy the story because it teaches about friendship, getting along, and feeling good about yourself. The illustrations are bright and colorful and draw the reader in. I have read The Little I Who Lost His Dot (one of the previous books in the series about letters), and this story fits right along with the same letters but with new adventures."
—Kids' BookBuzz, Lydia, age 10
