Playbooks, Inc. is an education publishing company that is committed to assisting schools and families in their efforts to increase student reading ability and enjoyment and to create future generations of lifetime readers by helping to foster a love of reading in children. We strive to support the goals set by the No Child Left Behind Act through providing excellent reading material in a format that builds fluency and improves learning.

Unique and Patented Playbook® Format
The Playbook® format is patented, unique, and provides Reader's Theater stories with character roles written at different reading levels and appearing in different colors.

StageBooks™ at Home
In the home setting, parents are able to read with their children in a manner that promotes reading fluency and enjoyment. StageBooks™ are designed with the patented Playbook® format to allow parents to match each child's reading ability to certain characters in the story. Brothers and sisters of different ages and reading abilities can enjoy the same story together. StageBooks™ provide a creative substitute for TV and video games, and expose children to reading role-models and richer vocabulary at home. Reader's Theater is a dynamic reading activity that children can do together, or a fun activity for the whole family. The U. S. Department of Education has declared that reading aloud is the single most important activity that parents can do with their children to ensure their future success, and that reading aloud should continue throughout the grades. StageBooks™ help parents and their children enjoy reading aloud together at any age.

Playbooks® in the Classroom
Playbooks® Multi-Leveled Reader's Theater was created with the goal of enabling readers of various ability to read together while allowing all readers to benefit from and enjoy their reading experience. Often, low level readers are grouped together and separated from the higher level readers in the classroom. This leaves them in a stagnant group of struggling readers who are only exposed to others reading at the same level. With Playbooks®, teachers are able to privately assign roles to students based on their reading levels, and all readers enjoy the entertaining stories and the dynamic exercise of reading aloud together like a play. Lower level readers gain the benefits of hearing richer vocabulary and sentence structure read fluently by their peers while higher level readers are given challenging texts. This type of reading translates into higher confidence and self-esteem in children.

Because Playbooks, Inc. specializes in Reader's Theater, its products are simply the best available ... from adaptations of classic stories to numerous new stories originally written and designed in the enhanced Playbook® format.

OUR MISSION

Playbooks, Inc's. mission is to become a prominent publisher by providing high-quality children's books in an innovative, unique, and practical format that enhances the practice of reading aloud in a family or group, stimulates parent involvement, increases reading enjoyment for children at home and at school, improves learning, and helps to foster a love of reading, which in turn creates future generations of lifetime readers.

Through our long-term commitment to this mission, we will be known as a company that has accelerated access to ideas that inspire, educate, and entertain, while serving the distinct individual needs of children, their families, and the educational system.

Dear Parents,      I would be the first to admit that my greatest inventions, by far, are my three children. It was for them, and for the hope of their continued scholastic achievements, that the Playbook® format was born.             As an avid read-aloud mother, I diligently read stories to my two sons. In addition, I was an animated reader, always known for "getting into" my characterizations using dramatic voices and gestures, which my children continuously enjoyed. As my sons grew older and were able to read for themselves, I naturally focused on reading aloud to my young daughter. It was interesting, however, that during these reading sessions, my boys could always be found nearby, even lurking in the hall outside my daughter’s room. Were they interested in the story, wondering what was going to happen? No—the stories were familiar and had been read to them many times.      The obvious conclusion was that they wanted to be a part of the "read-aloud" experience. Reading the part of a lion in the story, I roared out a sentence and my oldest son repeated it, but expressed it even better. The proverbial "light bulb" went on. Wouldn’t it be great if he could read the part of the lion for the rest of this story? And, wouldn’t it be great if my other son and daughter could also read a character’s part? Wouldn’t it make sense, and be a lot of fun, to involve the entire family in the read-aloud strategy? The concept of the Playbook® format was born!                 To make it work, I knew we each had to have an identical book, an easy way to follow along, and a way to give everyone a character role to play. We needed books to be written in a way that narration would be reduced and dialogue increased so that we could each have significant involvement in the story, very similar to a play, but without all the fuss. Role-playing reading in this manner had to be as simple as reading any other story.      The next question was, "What type of story would be challenging and interesting enough for my 10 and 12 year-old boys, yet be something that my 7 year-old daughter could also read comfortably?" "Specialized Reading Levels" was the obvious answer to bridge the gap between their reading abilities.      After my children and I adapted a few stories manually, and read them with the whole family in a "role-play" format, the excitement and enjoyment my three children expressed was simply astonishing. I could not remember ever seeing them as excited playing any video game or watching TV. After awarding my middle child with the "Best Expression Award," he confidently smiled, bowed, and said, "I'd like to thank the Academy…." In an extremely short period of time, the progress in their reading ability and confidence was also just as extraordinary. It quickly became clear to me that we had to share this with everyone!      Cast your family today into a StageBook™ of your choice, and you’ll begin a lasting tradition of family edu-tainment that will instill in your children a love of reading for a lifetime. Now you can set the stage for the success of your children's future. Lights! - Camera! - ACTION! Sincerely, Dianna Cleveland President, CEO, Founder