I remember when I first learned to read, in first grade in Sweden in the 1960’s. We had a thick book, several hundred pages long, that started with the following text on the first page: “Far ror, Mor är rar” (Father is rowing, Mother is sweet). This is the kind of nonsense that could make you wonder why you should bother learning to read. It seems obvious that books for early readers should contain information that is useful and interesting. One might puzzle over why so few