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This Reading Mama

FREE BOB Books Printables for Sets 1 though 5

By thisreadingmama 40 Comments

Do you teach a young reader with the BOB Books? Then you’ve just struck gold! This post is FILLED with tons of FREE BOB Books printables for sets 1-5 and beyond…

What are BOB Books?

BOB Books were created by Bobby Lynn Maslen and John Maslen. While working in a preschool, Bobby began making the books for her preschoolers to learn how to read. John Maslen, an amazing water-color painter, drew the pictures. They were first published in 1976 and have now become VERY popular among beginning readers. There are even apps for the BOB Books!

BOB Books are used by many to teach reading, even to the young child. Starting with the earliest set, phonics features and sight words are introduced slowly to make it easy for your child to pick up the book and read.

FREE BOB Book Printables

I’ve had the honor of working with a team of bloggers to create FREE printable activities. Click on each image or link to find the printables and resources. Within each blog post, I also share the links of the other bloggers’ free printables.

Click on the images or the links below to get to the free BOB Books Printables for each set!

BOB Books, Set 1 Printables

BOB Books, Set 2 Printables

BOB Books, Set 3 Printables

BOB Books, Set 4 Printables

BOB Books, Set 5 Printables

More BOB Books Resources!

• Download FREE Lesson Plans & Outlines for Sets 1- 5 of the BOB Books!
• I also have FREE printables for BOB Books Rhyming Words ! Click HERE or on the image above to read more about and download the printables.

*I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated site.

Buy BOB Books

If you’d like to purchase BOB Books {sets 1-5 or other ones} for your home or classroom library, please consider doing so through my Amazon affiliate links below. There is no extra cost to you. Thanks!

• BOB Books: Set 1
• BOB Books: Set 2
• BOB Books: Set 3
• BOB Books: Set 4
• BOB Books: Set 5
• BOB Books: Rhyming Words

I am not affiliated with BOB Books, but I do have their permission to use the BOB Book logos and various images throughout my printables.

Enjoy! ~Becky

Want MORE Free Teaching Resources?

Join thousands of other subscribers to get hands-on activities and printables delivered right to your inbox!

April 19, 2013 at 10:56 am

Thank you, thank you, thank you ladies for all your hard work and generosity to all of us! I love seeing all that you ladies come up with to help us homeschool our children. I am a grandmother of five and am now homeschooling the first two starting in August and I cannot wait to use all of these wonderful resources you have so generously written and shared for FREE!!! Thank you, thank you again!

April 19, 2013 at 2:15 pm

You’re very welcome. What an encouragement to know it will be a blessing for you!

May 1, 2013 at 10:29 am

Thank you Thank you Thank you!! THese are wonderful!!!!

May 1, 2013 at 1:42 pm

You’re welcome, welcome, welcome! 🙂

August 26, 2013 at 5:19 pm

I have downloaded every single one from every single blog!! Love this series. Thank you so much for creating these.

October 18, 2013 at 6:12 pm

I had a question about purchasing the Bob books. I am not just not sure where to start. My daughter knows all her letters (all uppercase, most lowercase) and about 75% of the sounds they make. We are going through your curriculum for reviewing letter sounds and learning sight words. Can you maybe tell me what set of bob books I should buy? I would love to use your affiliate link to thank you for all you have given to your readers. This is certainly one of the best literacy websites ever in my opinion!

October 18, 2013 at 6:27 pm

Thank you for your kind words. My son {the one that use Reading the Alphabet last year} is going through Set 1 this year. We’re going pretty quickly and it’s been good review for him. How far are you through Reading the Alphabet now? My Set 1 printables overlap Reading the Alphabet just a bit, so when you feel she is ready to add more, I’d say go for Set 1. 🙂

October 29, 2013 at 12:06 pm

I just now saw this reply! I must have missed in my email somehow. We are only on week 4 of your curriculum (we are taking about a week and half to go through each one) so I think i will go for set 1. Thanks for your advice!

February 2, 2014 at 2:32 pm

Knowing first hand all the time, work, and effort it takes to run a classroom, I appreciate all the more the extra time you ladies have taken to make these resources available to us. Thank you so very much!!! This answered a few prayers as to where to start with reading for my son and our homeschooling program. Thank you for sharing. All your hard work was worth it and greatly appreciated.

July 29, 2014 at 3:14 am

YOU ARE AMAZING. Thank you so much for all your hard work. I am a student teacher at UCF and your efforts are beyond what I’ve seen in my field. I am homeschooling my daughter and am inspired by your work. My kids learned how to read with Bob Books (and Starfall). I am so pleased to see some hands-on activities to compliment them.

July 29, 2014 at 5:01 am

Thank you for your sweet comment. One of my main goals was hands-on when creating these. Glad to be used as an inspiration. 🙂

January 14, 2015 at 11:12 am

They now have BOB sight words.

January 14, 2015 at 2:22 pm

Yes, I saw that! 🙂

August 30, 2016 at 10:41 am

Thank you! All your printables are fantastic!

August 31, 2016 at 6:38 am

December 3, 2016 at 10:27 am

WOW! Thank you sooooooo much!!!!

December 5, 2016 at 6:47 am

You are soooooo welcome! 🙂 These were a joy to create.

September 6, 2017 at 12:13 pm

Do you have a set of pintables for the Bob Books Sight Words for Kindergarten?

My just turned 5 year old just started kindergarten. They are doing the letter of the week, but she also did that in Pre-K. I think it is a good review for her, but I she is showing more interest in learning to read on her own. I thought I would supplement her school work with your “Reading the Alphabet” curriculum, but focus more on the sight words and word families and skip your “letter only” activities (just so that she does not have 2 “letters of the week”).

I also planned to print the corresponding books from The Measured Mom, since it looks like her books follow your “Reading the Alphabet” curriculum.

I’m debating if I should also try to integrate the Bob sight word books … or the Set 1 Bob Books as well. I’m not sure the order that the Bob books follow, and if that might get tricky for me to organize.

March 19, 2018 at 11:19 am

I can no longer access the content from In Lieu of Preschool and Rockabye Butterfly.

September 13, 2019 at 10:04 am

YES YES YES, many thanks for releasing this again. I just became a teacher for literacy in SPED and this is amazing for me!

September 17, 2019 at 9:32 am

Awesome, glad you can use them!

December 28, 2019 at 7:05 am

Thank u so much😊

December 28, 2019 at 8:31 am

You’re very welcome! 🙂

January 8, 2021 at 11:06 am

Thank you so much for these super fun activities! My son has really enjoyed these as an add on! It is easy enough for him and he’s 4.

[…] Lieu on Preschool – Book 1-6 Review This Reading Mama – Book 1-6 Review Royal Baloo – Book 1-6 Review Walking by The Way – Book 4, 5, […]

[…] Can you believe it?  We’ve reached the end of Set 1!  Here are the free BOB Book printables for Set 1, Book 12.  To see all of the FREEBIES created for Set 1, click on the image above or HERE. […]

[…] This Reading Mama  BOB Books Printables (Sets 1 &2) […]

[…] printables to go with the BOB Books?  Then, you’ll also want to check out my freebies for Set 1 and 2 as well as these amazing bloggers’ free printables for Set 3, Books […]

[…] more BOB Book Printables, click HERE (Set 1 and Set 2 are complete).  You can also view all the free printables I offer for Elementary […]

[…] available are the BOB Books Readers that many wonderful homeschooling bloggers have created free printables to coincide with.  I do not own them personally, but they sound […]

[…] BOB Book Printables {Set 3 comes out in August!} […]

[…] Today, join 3 Dinosaurs and Royal Baloo as we share our FREE BOB Book printables for Set 4, Books 3 and 4. Enjoy! {Click on the links below each image to download.} You can also see all the free printables we’ve made so far by clicking HERE. […]

[…] (Samantha) and 6 (Willy’s Wish). To see the BOB Book packs we’ve created so far, click HERE. Be sure to click on the link under each image to download the pack for each […]

[…] Free BOB Book Printables – Download several FREE worksheets to go with sets 1-5 of Bob Books […]

[…] Checkout The Reading Mama she has a AWESOME set of FREE Printables to go along with the BOB Books! […]

[…] out short and simple texts that feature the short vowel words, like the BOB Books, is a wonderful place for young readers to begin their journey. {Note: These readers are only part […]

[…] your beginning reader enjoys the BOB Books, you’ll appreciate this giant set of printables from This Reading Mama.  Most of these work well even without using the BOB […]

[…] Reading Mama also has a ton of printables to go along with the BOB Books. They look so […]

[…] them to her grandparents. To expand the experience, I just discovered This Reading Mama’s excellent printable activities for the […]

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Bob Books Reading Magic #1 4+

Learning to read with phonics, bob books publications llc, designed for ipad.

• 4.6 • 566 Ratings

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Description.

- Winner Editor's Choice Award, Children's Technology Review - 15 Great Apps for Kids, Babble.com - Parenting Magazine “Best App for Kids” - Parents Choice Approved Millions of kids have learned to read with the Bob Books beginning reader series. Kids can watch their favorite Bob Books stories and characters come to life with Bob Books Reading Magic #1! Start your child reading with this phonics-based interactive game. Even very young children love the simple drag-and-drop interface. Your favorite Bob Books characters and full-color animations encourage kids along the path of learning to read. Bob Books Reading Magic continues Bob Books’ commitment to bringing children a satisfying, successful first reading experience, with easy first steps, wholesome values, authentic hand-drawn illustrations, and beautiful full-color animations. Bob Books Reading Magic will show your child how to: -Make the connection between letters and sounds. -Sound out simple words. -Spell the words they’ve read. The game includes twelve scenes for a total of 32 words. Four game levels provide increasing learn-to-read challenges to children as they play. Bob Books Reading Magic follows the same method and principles as the #1 best-selling Bob Books series. Bob Books were created to lead children to the ah-ha moment when letters first turn into words. By slowly introducing new letter sounds, using consistency, repetition and stories that fit short attention spans, your child will quickly find his or her own ah-ha moment. This is the reading magic of Bob Books. Soon your child will join over 10 million children who can proudly say, “I read the whole book!”® Parents and educators rave about Bob Books apps: "Bob Books #1 - Reading Magic is an excellent introduction to phonics for young children... This app will grow with your learning child, and keep their interest as they read and re-read the sentences on each page." --- Common Sense Media "A fantastic tool for a pre- or early reader -- and a fun way to occupy your toddler during a doctor's visit." --- Infant Bibliophile "Bob Books #1 - Reading Magic is a top learning app for toddlers and for sure one of the best apps for toddlers and preschoolers to learn how to read." --- Fun Educational Apps "One of the best learning app for kids." --- Everything Mom Bob Books respects your privacy! We do not collect, store, or share any personal information or location data. All our apps are ad free, without in-app purchases and are safe for young children. Read more at: https://bobbooks.com/privacy-policy *** We love getting feedback from our users. If you have questions or comments, please send them to [email protected]. *** For more information about Bob Books, visit https://bobbooks.com

Version 3.5

Ratings and Reviews

566 Ratings

My daughter loves this app!

My 5 year old is using Bob books to learn how to read. She loves that this app features the same characters. She’ll read me one of the books, then excitedly tell me ‘Mama, the cat is orange on my iPad! Let’s play that game now so I can show you!’. The books and this app have really made her excited about reading. As a parent, I love that it’s simple, slow paced, and not overstimulating.

This is a great app for my 4.5 year old blossoming reader! We are using the first set of BOB books to start her off on reading and this game is a nice supplement. She likes the characters from the books, and I like how the levels progress to add difficulty in nice "baby steps" (i.e. Doesn't jump from too easy to too hard). We love it!

Awesome app

When I downloaded it I thought I was going to HATE it but it turned out to be fun my kids love it and they are learning like crazy

App Privacy

The developer, Bob Books Publications LLC , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

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Up to six family members can use this app with family sharing enabled., more by this developer.

Bob Books Reading Magic Lite

Bob Books Sight Words Lite

Bob Books Reading Magic #2

Bob Books Reading Sight Words

Bob Books Spin and Spell

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Watch CBS News

CDK cyberattack shuts down auto dealerships across the U.S. Here's what to know.

By Megan Cerullo

Edited By Aimee Picchi

Updated on: June 21, 2024 / 5:15 PM EDT / CBS News

CDK Global, a company that provides auto dealerships across the U.S. with software for managing sales and other services, was shut down for a third straight day Friday after cyberattacks crippled the platform. 

The outage is disrupting roughly 15,000 car sellers that depend on CDK's dealer management software to run their businesses, including vehicle sales. Some dealership employees have resorted to pen and paper to handle transactions, but said most deals had ground to a halt. CDK has not indicated when its systems will be back up and running, but suggested the outage could last several days. 

"We are actively investigating a cyber incident," a CDK spokesperson told CBS News. "Out of an abundance of caution and concern for our customers, we have shut down most of our systems and are working diligently to get everything up and running as quickly as possible." 

CDK, which said it had restored some services on Wednesday, told CBS MoneyWatch on Thursday afternoon that its systems were again offline after it suffered another cyberattack. 

"Late in the evening of June 19, we experienced an additional cyber incident and proactively shut down most of our systems," a CDK spokesperson said. "In partnership with third-party experts, we are assessing the impact and providing regular updates to our customers. We remain vigilant in our efforts to reinstate our services and get our dealers back to business as usual as quickly as possible."

Calls to a CDK customer support hotline produced a continuous busy signal. But the company's automated recording said the outage could affect dealerships for days, according to  PC Mag . The message told callers, "At this time, we do not have an estimated time frame for resolution and therefore our dealers' systems will not be available likely for several days," the publication reported.

The message also warned callers that "bad actors" posing as CDK support staff were trying to obtain customers' credentials in what are known as phishing attacks, according to The Associated Press . 

The number of cyberattacks has been on the rise in the last year, with more than 3,200 data breaches in 2023, a 78% jump from the prior year, according to a new study from data firm  SOAX . Those breaches impacted more than 65 million victims last year, it added.

What is CDK? 

CDK's dealer management system, or DMS, lets car vendors operate their business, including handling payroll, inventory, customer relations and office operations. The technology also enables dealers to line car buyers line up with financing and insurance.

On its website, it also touts its cybersecurity capabilities. "CDK Cybersecurity Solutions provide a three-tiered cybersecurity strategy to prevent, protect and respond to cyberattacks so you can defend your dealership," it says. 

Brookfield Business Partners, a Toronto-based private equity firm, acquired the company in 2022 in a  deal  valued at more than $8 billion.

When did the cyberattack begin?

The cyberattack on CDK Global began Tuesday evening, Bleeping Computer , a cybersecurity news site, reported Wednesday, taking the 15,000 car dealerships it serves offline.  

As mentioned above, CDK said it suffered another cyberattack on Wednesday evening. It is not currently known who, or what group, is behind the cyberattacks. 

Mike Stanton, CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association, said in a statement on Friday that "dealers are very committed to protecting their customer information and are actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident so they can respond appropriately."

How are dealerships responding?

Some dealerships appeared to get creative to continue doing business during the outage. Dealership employees posted about the outage on  Reddit  Wednesday, sharing that they were relying on spreadsheets and sticky notes to sell customers small parts and make repairs, but that they weren't making any large transactions. 

One employee asked other dealership employees, "How many of you are standing around because your whole shop runs on CDK?" under the heading "CDK down," with users in Wisconsin and Colorado confirming their dealership transaction systems were offline. 

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.

• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
• Cyberattack

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

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How a ‘Committed Partisan Warrior’ Came to Rethink the Political Wars

Bob Bauer, the personal attorney for President Biden and former White House counsel for President Barack Obama, is now wrestling with the win-at-all-costs nature of American politics.

• Share full article

By Peter Baker

Peter Baker has reported on the past five presidents. He first met Bob Bauer in the 1990s during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

Once, after he executed a particularly tough-minded legal attack on Republicans, Bob Bauer remembers, a conservative magazine called him an “evil genius.” He took it as a compliment. “I was very proud of that,” he said. “I thought, That’s cool.”

For decades, Democrats have turned to him as their lawyer to wage battles against the opposition. Reverse a House race they seemingly lost? Accuse the other side of criminal activity? Go to court to cut off Republican money flows? Find a legal justification for an ethically iffy strategy? Mr. Bauer was their man.

But now Mr. Bauer, the personal attorney for President Biden and previously the White House counsel for President Barack Obama, is looking back and rethinking all that. Maybe, he says, that win-at-all-costs approach to politics is not really conducive to a healthy, functioning democracy. Maybe, in taking the “genius” part to heart, he should have been more concerned about the “evil” part.

In a new book, “The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics Without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis,” to be published on Tuesday, Mr. Bauer takes stock of what he sees as the coarsening of American politics and examines the tension between ethical decisions and the “warrior mentality” that dominates the worlds of government and campaigns today. And in the process of thinking about what went wrong, Mr. Bauer, who calls himself a “committed partisan warrior,” has stopped to wrestle with his own role in the wars.

“I tell stories that go from sort of youthful peccadilloes to more significant mistakes I think that I made as I thought about what it meant to win a policy or win an election, about how far you go to do that,” he said on a recent evening at the New-York Historical Society, where he discussed the book.

“How do we make the politics better?” he asked. “How do we uphold our democratic norms by focusing on choices that people in positions of public responsibility have to make? And how do we make them in a way that is respectful of those norms and respectful of those institutions — as opposed to politics as blood sport, whatever it takes?”

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Late-Night Snack Legend: How Insomnia Cookies Went From Apartment To Empire

• Everyone Talks To Liz Claman

In 2003, searching for a late-night treat that could be delivered was no easy feat but when our guest was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he had a craving for a warm cookie at 3 AM. From there… ‘Insomnia Cookies’ was born.

Founder and CEO of Insomnia Cookies Seth Berkowitz  sits down with Liz for a candid conversation on how an idea turned into a bustling cookie empire with more than 265 stores. Seth shares the transformative story of how he started the business, why Insomnia’s targeted clientele are college students, and details the obstacles along the way that became the most defining moments.

Ask Liz your dying questions on Twitter!  @talktolizclaman

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Auburn’s Ace Atkins talks barbecue, blues and his new book, ‘Don’t Let the Devil Ride’

• Updated: Jun. 25, 2024, 9:58 p.m. |
• Published: Jun. 25, 2024, 7:15 a.m.

Ace Atkins, who played football at Auburn in the early 1990s before becoming a prolific crime novelist, has released his latest thriller, "Don't Let the Devil Ride," which publishes on June 25, 2024. (Photo by Billy Dabney; used with permission)

• Bob Carlton | [email protected]

Crime novelist and Alabama native Ace Atkins got his first taste of Memphis – its soulful music, its sinful food and its colorful cast of nocturnal characters – on a trip to the Bluff City during his senior year at Auburn University.

Atkins -- an AU football hero who, a couple months before, famously sacked Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel twice in the Tigers’ season-defining upset of the Gators -- had long been a fan of all those great Stax Records songs that emanated from Memphis, but he had never been to the place where they were recorded.

“This would have been December 1993,” Atkins recalls. “It was my senior watch banquet at Auburn and right before Christmas break. And I was like, ‘I just have to go to Memphis and see where all this stuff happened.’

“At that time, Stax Records had just been razed, so the old movie theater where they made all those recordings with Otis Redding and Sam & Dave and Booker T. & the M.G.’s, it was just bricks, just rubble. They were tearing it down to put up a soup kitchen or something.

“And I got some bricks and got some linoleum from the floor and went back to my hotel. It was almost like Stax had been erased from Memphis.

“I was in my hotel downtown, and there was a Christmas parade happening,” Atkins continues the story. “And I looked down, and the grand marshal of the Christmas parade was Rufus Thomas .

“He had been so forgotten about that I couldn’t believe he was still alive, and here he was the grand marshal. And I thought this is the best place, this is the greatest city. You’ve got Rufus Thomas leading the parade, you’ve got your great barbecue places downtown, you’ve got Elvis Presley.”

RELATED: Auburn’s Ace Atkins: From football hero to best-selling crime novelist

The prolific Atkins -- the author of 29 previous novels , including four in his early Nick Travers series, four true-crime novels , 11 in his Quinn Colson series and 10 in Robert B, Parker’s iconic Spenser franchise -- returns to Memphis (circa 2010) for more crime and hijinks, along with some international spy games, in his latest thriller, “Don’t Let the Devil Ride,” which releases today.

In it, Memphis housewife Addison McKellar hires legendary private investigator Porter Hayes (Atkins’ wink and nod to famed Stax musicians David Porter and Isaac Hayes ) to help her find her husband, globetrotting businessman Dean McKellar, who has vanished without telling the family of his whereabouts.

With Porter’s help, Addison soon discovers that Dean McKellar is not only not the man he was pretending to be, but he is also mixed up with a ruthless cabal that would not think twice about coming after Addison and her children.

It’s not as dark and heavy as all that may sound, though. Like Atkins’ earlier novels, “Don’t Let the Devil Ride” is sprinkled with liberal doses of wicked humor throughout.

“The school of thought that I come from is people like Elmore Leonard and Charles Portis,” Atkins says. “You’ve got to have a sense of humor to look at the absurdities of life.

“So that’s really the thing I try to get across to readers,” he adds. “If they pick up the book, hopefully they’ll get some laughs.”

In 1993, during his senior season at Auburn, Ace Atkins sacked Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel two times to key the Tigers' upset of the Gators. (Birmingham News file photo)

We spoke with Atkins over the phone from his home in Oxford, Miss., a few weeks before his new book’s publication.

Here are some excerpts from that conversation. Both the questions and answers have been edited for brevity and context.

In an Instagram post, you said this is the biggest and most fun story you’ve ever written. Can you elaborate on that? I mean, it’s certainly sprawling in terms of geography and characters and themes, but tell us your thoughts on why you feel that way.

Well, for the last 10, 11 years, I’ve been writing two series. One of them was very much my own, set in Mississippi with Quinn Colson. And then writing about Boston and writing for Spenser. And I knew I had a really big book that I wanted to write, and it seemed like this was the time to do it.

You know, you have those projects that you want to take on, and I wanted to write something that was very Memphis but at the same time had a larger, globe-hopping component to it.

As much as I love crime novels, back when I was a kid, I used to love spy novels. I read Ian Fleming and John le Carré. That was really my gateway into crime fiction.

So I wanted a little bit of espionage . . . a big, globe-hopping, fun, international thriller that just happened to be set mainly up the road in Memphis.

So, is this something that has been percolating in your head for a while, even as far back as the Quinn Colson books?

Years ago, I guess this was around 2010, my editor, a guy named Neil Nyren, wanted me to start writing a series. He thought it would be good for me to create a series character.

We talked about it, and I had two ideas. And one of them was set in a very rural area and that was what became Quinn Colson. And the other idea I had was a very urban story set in Memphis, about a private detective named Porter Hayes. And these were two different kind of paths -- kind of like the city mouse versus the country mouse.

Ultimately, what drew me in was writing about Quinn Colson and writing about this fictional Mississippi county, but I always had that character, that detective, Porter Hayes, in mind. I just couldn’t quit thinking about him. He was always there.

And so, when I changed publishers -- I went from Putnam to William Morrow -- they were very interested in me doing a stand-alone story and me doing a big, weighty summer thriller. And I just knew that I had to have Porter Hayes in it.

The title, “Don’t Let the Devil Ride,” references an old gospel song, the kind of music that is right in your wheelhouse. What’s the backstory on that?

It’s funny because, once you write a book, there’s a lot of discussion over the cover and the title, and we went through a million different titles. I’m not kidding. It’s the longest process of all.

When I was revising the manuscript, I can’t remember if Porter says it or his colleague, Deacon Malone, says it, but he said, ‘Like the old song says, don’t let the devil ride,’ which is an old gospel standard that has been covered by all kinds of people.

And it just seemed very fitting for the title, and it seemed very Memphis to me.

In a photo from earlier in his career, crime novelist Ace Atkins stands in front of Memphis' famed Sun Studio. Atkins returns to Memphis for his latest novel, "Don't Let the Devil Ride." (Photo by Jay Nolen)

You live less than an hour from Memphis. So, when you go there, it’s not always for research. You still go just for fun, right?

The fun thing about this book was it didn’t really require a lot of research. Places that are brought alive in the book are places that I’ve been many times, and in some cases, they don’t even exist anymore.

There might have been a time where I needed to go to the Port of Memphis (for research) and see where they were unloading some things. And that’s the great thing about living here is, in 45 minutes, I’m at the Port of Memphis. And I can walk around and get those details of exactly what it looks like.

But no, I’m in Memphis frequently and just for very boring reasons, whether it’s a doctor’s visit or a trip to Costco. But also, just to eat. There are so many great restaurants in Memphis.

I’ll look for any excuse to go to Payne’s Bar-B-Q . I ate there a few weeks ago with a friend of mine who’s a writer, and I was thinking, ‘Is it as good as I remember?’ And it was better than I remember. The sandwich was just phenomenal.

So what are you writing next?

I’m in production now for next year’s book, which is a spy novel. There is one character that has a connection to “Don’t Let the Devil Ride,” but in no way is it a sequel or anything. It’s just a reference, kind of a riff on the story.

It’s my own personal take on a classic spy novel, and for people who’ve read ‘Don’t Let the Devil Ride’ and enjoyed the humor in it, hopefully, it has that same kind of humorous feel to it.

And will we be seeing more of Porter Hayes somewhere down the road?

I think so. That’s what I would like. I’m finishing up this (other) book right now that’ll be out next year, and what I would like to do is go back to that original story that I was working on with Porter Hayes that is set in the 1990s, about the same time that I first arrived in Memphis.

So you’ll get to see him as a younger man, 25 or so years before the events of “Don’t Let the Devil Ride.”

What about Quinn Colson? Are there any plans to resume that series?

That’s the plan. Some of those things are out of your hands, depending on what the editor wants and what’s going on at the moment. But I would love to return to both Porter Hayes and I would love to return to Quinn Colson and kind of circle back to the original plan from 2010.

These are my two favorite characters that I want to write about, and I want to continue writing their stories and, at the same time, write some stand-alones, too.

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Bob Books Complete Stage 1: Beginning Readers Set | 3 Book Sets plus Workbook Paperback – May 8, 2018

• Print length 100 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Scholastic Trade
• Publication date May 8, 2018
• ISBN-10 1338594796
• ISBN-13 978-1338594799
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scholastic Trade (May 8, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 100 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1338594796
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1338594799
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.67 pounds
• Best Sellers Rank: #70,480 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books )

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Lynn maslen kertell.

Lynn Maslen Kertell has been involved with Bob Books right from the beginning, starting with the first edition in the 1970s. Lynn pasted-up and hand-lettered the original Bob Books, created by her parents, Bobby and John Maslen, when she was in high school.

As Lynn’s own daughter was beginning to learn to read, returning to the family business was a natural step. Her experience tackling the fun, bonding and sometimes complex task of helping her child learn to read, showed her that Bob Books really work. There are many skills a child needs to become literate. Bob Books' measured approach respects the steps that turn a child into a reader, and entertains them with real stories that kids can relate to.

Lynn brings the Maslen sense of humor, warmth and gentle encouragement to her writing, as she creates the next generation of Bob Books. She continues Bobby's phonics-based approach to teaching reading, and is proud to contribute to the millions of children who can say with pride, "I read the whole book!"®

Lynn lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and daughter.

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This Bold '60s Dramedy Took Taboo Into the Mainstream

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The Big Picture

• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice explores midlife crises and marital woes in the midst of a cultural revolution.
• Paul Mazursky's film delves into gender politics and the changing attitudes towards marriage in the 1960s.
• The movie, despite its '60s setting, remains relevant today by showing the struggle to stay vital in changing times.

As the 1960s transitioned into the 1970s, America experienced a cultural revolution the likes of which it hasn't seen since. The Civil Rights Movement, the sexual revolution, and the proliferation of drug use completely upended the normal order of American society in the first half of the 20th century. Hollywood found itself in a similarly transitional period, and aging movie moguls turned the reigns over to young directors who wanted to make films about what was really going on. It was in this environment that Paul Mazursky 's Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice , a surprisingly frank exploration of polyamory, was released by a major studio at the tail end of the '60s.

Robert Culp and Natalie Wood star as Bob and Carol Sanders, a well-to-do married couple who decide to become more open with their feelings after a weekend getaway at a self-help retreat. Their newfound openness is put to the test when Bob, a documentary filmmaker, has an affair with a young assistant while on a shoot in San Francisco. Bob tells Carol the truth, and she forgives his infidelity, much to the surprise of their uptight friends Ted ( Elliott Gould ) and Alice Henderson ( Dyan Cannon ). Alice can't believe Carol would accept her husband's unfaithfulness, while Ted finds his eye wandering during a business trip to Miami. Things come to a head when the four find themselves jumping into bed together while on vacation in Las Vegas, with messy results. While some films that had their finger on the pulse have aged poorly, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice has aged like wine, and many of its observations about midlife crises and marital woes are just as relevant today as they were in 1969 .

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

Trendy West Coasters Bob and Carol try wife-swapping with square Ted and Alice.

Middle-Aged Malaise and the Counterculture Intersect in 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was the directorial debut of Mazursky, who started out as an actor in such films as Stanley Kurbrick 's Fear and Desire and Richard Brooks ' Blackboard Jungle before turning to screenwriting. Mazursky was almost 40 by the time he helmed his first film, and, like the characters in B&C&T&A , was already married with children. While movies like Easy Rider , released the same year, examined the counterculture through the lens of wayward youths, Mazursky's was from the perspective of adults entering middle age, with all the baggage that comes along with that.

What's fascinating about Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice , which Mazursky co-wrote with Larry Tucker , is that it finds its characters dealing with a transitional period in their lives as the country was dealing with its own radical transformation. Born in the 1930s, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are too young to be fully part of the greatest generation and too old to be considered baby boomers. They're stuck somewhere in between, both fascinated by the revolution of the 1960s and terrified of it. They want to prove that they're hip to changing times, yet their conservative upbringings color their experiences with sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Getting old is hard enough, but to do so during a period of mass cultural upheaval is truly a head trip.

Why Elliott Gould Wants To Make a ‘Long Goodbye’ Sequel With Steven Soderbergh

Do you think the ‘Magic Mike’ and ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ director would be up for the challenge?

Throughout his career, Mazursky explored the listlessness and depression that comes with life in sunny California. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice are products of Los Angeles, and they've become complacent hanging by the pool in their Beverly Hills mansions. Suddenly, they wake up on the wrong side of 30, and they try desperately to make the clock start ticking in the opposite direction. More than anything, their embrace of free love, dope smoking, and emotional honesty is a means of proving they won't become their parents, despite evidence to the contrary. Bob and Carol's excitement about getting in touch with their feelings and opening themselves up sexually masks a deeper sadness about the realization that their lives aren't as exciting as they thought they would be when they were 20.

Paul Mazursky Explores Women's Liberation Through Sexuality

Marital infidelity was nothing new in the 1960s, but what did change were certain attitudes about it. While affairs were usually carried out in private, the era of free love led to many couples straying with their partner's consent, with some even choosing to forgo the traditional strictures of marriage. Of course, as in all things, there existed double standards for men and women. As he would later do in An Unmarried Woman , Mazursky explores the seismic shift taking place during the Women's Liberation Movement, as both Carol and Alice break through the expectations of the traditional housewives they were raised to become.

When Bob admits his affair to Carol, he's almost upset that she isn't upset about it. Her acceptance acts like a green light for Bob to sleep around more, and he encourages Ted to partake in some extramarital activities of his own . Yet when Bob returns home from a trip unannounced and finds his wife in bed with another man, his embrace of free love suddenly flies out the window. Carol has proven her independence, and for all of Bob's supposed progressive values, he can't quite handle it, leading to a hilarious scene where he tries to prove his acceptance of the situation by offering a drink to the tennis instructor ( Horst Ebersberg ) in his bed.

Alice, meanwhile, is aghast at Bob's infidelity and Carol's approval of it, and she's appalled that Ted isn't troubled by it. She unloads this during a therapy session in which she questions her life up to that point. In Vegas, Ted admits to having a one-night stand while out of town, sparking Alice to propose what she believes is the only possible solution to their current predicament: a foursome with Bob and Carol. Like Bob, Ted is unsettled by his wife's newfound sexual freedom , proving once again that what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander... at least in the goose's eyes.

'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' Is Both a Film of Its Time and Outside of It

If Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice were made today, it would likely be independently financed.Yet through a miracle of historical circumstances, it was distributed by Columbia Pictures and became a box office hit that earned four Oscar nominations (including Gould and Cannon for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Original Screenplay for Mazursky and Tucker, and for Best Cinematography). To understand how and why it got produced by a major studio and embraced by audiences and the academy alike is truly one of those "you had to be there" moments that happened throughout the late '60s and '70s, as Hollywood fought to maintain its relevance by appealing to younger audiences.

Yet even though the characters dress in Tie Die and wear hippie beads, the film isn't any less relevant today than it was in 1969. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice may be a quintessential '60s movie, yet its themes about gender politics, getting older, and trying to remain vital during changing times remain universal . More than anything, it shows what can happen to people who become too comfortable in their lives and suddenly find themselves on the other side of middle age, asking themselves where the time went and what they can do to get some of it back before it's too late.

The film ends with Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice wandering around Las Vegas as the soundtrack plays – almost ironically – "What the World Needs Now Is Love." As the song goes, it's the only thing that there's just too little of. Funny how, for as much as things change, they somehow stay the same.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is currently available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

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Find supplements to your Bob Books sets here! Download and use them along with the books for enriched success when helping your children learn to read.

Set 1: Beginning Readers

Coloring page.

Rhyming Words

Game: rhyme fish.

Set 2: Advancing Beginners

Sight Words: Kindergarten

Game: word search.

Sight Words: First Grade

Game: fill-in.

Sight Words

Game: word match.

Set 3: Word Families

Set 4: Complex Words

Set 5: Long Vowels

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Each printable pack contains hands-on and developmentally appropriate activities to work on phonics patterns as well as sight words that are introduced in each Bob Book set.

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Hands-on learning for home or school, making reading fun for little ones.

1-844-READ- BOB

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