Martha Speaks
A series targeted at 3- to 6-year-olds, with the primary educational goal of bolstering children's vocabulary development -- one of five key elements of reading success and one of the areas where the greatest chasm exists between disadvantaged kids and their peers. Secondary literacy skills addressed in the series include: phonics, letter-sound knowledge, print awareness, comprehension, predicting, retelling, and visualizing. The title character of the series is a lovable family dog who acquires the ability to speak when she eats alphabet soup.