All About Reading Review: What You Get, What It Costs
Editorial score: 4.4 / 5. All About Reading is one of the few consumer reading programs whose published structure matches what reading research supports: explicit, sequential, cumulative phonics with real decodable practice. The publisher describes it as "Based on the proven research of Orton-Gillingham" and as a structured literacy program. At 159.95 dollars per level with a one-year, any-condition money-back guarantee, the financial risk is unusually low.
The catch is not the price, it is you. Nobody teaches these lessons but a parent, roughly 20 minutes a day, every day, for as long as it takes. That is the whole decision. If you will genuinely sit down and teach, this is excellent value. If you already know you will not, no discount makes it work, and a program with a live teacher is the honest alternative. Prices verified July 23, 2026.
What All About Reading actually is
It is a printed, parent-taught curriculum from All About Learning Press, not an app and not a class. You get scripted lessons in a teacher's manual, an activity book, flashcards, physical letter tiles the child moves by hand, and decodable readers. The publisher's own summary calls it a "scripted, open-and-go program ... developed for busy parents, teachers, and tutors" with "lightly scripted lessons that give results with only 20 minutes a day."
The sequence is a Pre-reading program plus Levels 1 to 4. The same publisher sells All About Spelling in seven levels and All About Math in five, and the letter tiles are shared across reading and spelling. Whether the 119.95-dollar Pre-reading program is worth buying at all is its own question, which we take up in our All About Reading Pre-reading review. And because spelling sits outside this program, it is worth seeing it against a curriculum that bundles everything: All About Reading vs Logic of English.
| Level | Focus | Decodable stories |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-reading | The five pre-reading skills: letter knowledge, phonological awareness, print awareness, listening comprehension, motivation to read | not applicable |
| Level 1 | Letter sounds A to Z plus the consonant teams TH, SH, CH, CK, NG and NK. 53 lessons | 52 |
| Level 2 | 12 new phonograms including EE, ER, AR, OR, OY, AW and OW, plus silent E and two and three syllable words | 27 |
| Level 3 | 16 new phonograms including OA, IR, IGH, EW, KN and TI, with multi-syllable words | 25 |
| Level 4 | 15 new phonograms including EY, UI, PH, OUGH, SI and RH, with advanced word-attack skills, comprehension and fluency | 29 |
What it really costs
The headline number is the level set. What most reviews leave out is which parts are consumable, which is what decides the cost for a second child.
| Item | Price | Bought how often |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 to 4 Materials (teacher's manual, student packet, readers) | 159.95 dollars | once per level |
| Pre-reading Program | 119.95 dollars | once |
| Student Packet on its own (activity book, flashcards, stickers) | 67.95 dollars | once per extra child, per level |
| Teacher's Manual on its own | 50.95 dollars | replacement only |
| Letter Tiles | 25.95 dollars | once per household, covers reading and spelling |
| Review Box | 17.95 dollars | once per student |
Add it up and the full sequence for a first child is roughly 760 dollars across Pre-reading and four levels, spread over several years rather than paid at once. The publisher states that the teacher's manual and readers are non-consumable and that a second student at the same level needs another Student Packet, Review Box and divider cards, so a sibling costs under 90 dollars per level. For a family with three children, that maths is the strongest argument for the program.
The teaching approach, in the publisher's own words
This matters more than the packaging, because the phrase "phonics program" covers a lot of very different things. All About Learning Press states that the program is "Based on the proven research of Orton-Gillingham" and names the properties it claims: instruction that is multisensory ("sight, hearing, and touch"), sequential, incremental ("ensuring that there are no gaps"), cumulative ("students master one concept before moving on to a more advanced concept") and explicit ("students are taught exactly what they need to know in a clear and straightforward manner"). Its blog describes All About Reading as a structured literacy program that follows the science of reading.
Those are the publisher's claims rather than an outside audit, but they are consistent with what the published lesson structure actually does: a fixed sequence of phonograms, mastery before progression, and reading practice in books limited to what the child has been taught. As we set out on our science of reading page, no program can be the science of reading, but a program's practices can line up with it, and here they broadly do.
One claim we are not passing on as fact. The company's methodology page states that its programs are "PROVEN TO WORK for children with dyslexia". That is marketing language on its own site, not independent evidence, and we treat it as a claim. A curriculum is also not a substitute for an evaluation: if you suspect a reading difficulty, the free screening from your school district comes first, and it is the step that produces a diagnosis a publisher cannot.
The part most reviews skip: a level is not a grade
The publisher says this plainly in its FAQ and almost nobody repeats it: "the level numbers on our books do not refer to grade levels. Our lessons are mastery-based, not grade-level-based ... The book may be labeled 'Level 1,' but this is not meant to indicate that it is appropriate for all first graders."
The same applies to the calendar. Level 1 contains 53 lessons, but the company states that a lesson is not a day and that "some lessons may take a week or more to finish." So the honest planning answer is that one level takes somewhere between a few months and a full year, depending on the child. Use the free placement test rather than your child's grade, and do not promise yourself the level will end in June.
The guarantee, and its three limits
This is the strongest consumer term in the category and it is worth quoting properly. The program page says: "Check out all of the step-by-step lesson plans and reading and spelling tips for ONE FULL YEAR ... If you purchase from us and decide it's not for you, simply send the package back (in any condition), and we'll refund your purchase price. No questions asked."
The FAQ then adds the fine print the badge does not carry. The refund is "excluding shipping". It "only applies to products purchased directly from All About Learning Press", so a copy bought through a reseller or marketplace is a final sale. And purchases made with an educational savings account get 45 days rather than a year. None of that undoes how good the term is: you can teach a whole year of lessons, write in the activity book, and still send it back.
Pros
- Explicit, sequential, cumulative phonics with mastery before progression, stated openly by the publisher
- Decodable readers limited to taught patterns, so early reading is real reading and not guessing
- One-year money-back guarantee with materials returnable in any condition
- Genuinely cheap for a second and third child: the manual, readers and tiles are re-used
- Scripted lessons mean a parent does not need training to deliver them
- Free placement tests instead of guessing from grade level
Cons
- You are the teacher, about 20 minutes a day, indefinitely; there is no version of this with an instructor
- Roughly 760 dollars for the full sequence for one child, before Review Boxes
- Level numbers are not grades and lesson counts are not days, so the schedule is unpredictable
- Consumables repeat per child: 67.95 dollars for a Student Packet plus 17.95 dollars for a Review Box
- The guarantee excludes shipping and does not cover reseller purchases
- The dyslexia efficacy claim is the publisher's own, not independent evidence
- Print and tiles mean prep, storage and small parts, which the publisher flags as a choking hazard under three
On the ratings you will see quoted: the figures on the publisher's site (4.8 out of 5, about 4,600 reviews, more than two million sold, 200,000 families) are collected and displayed by the company itself. We report them as its numbers and do not adopt them as a rating of our own.
If that total is the sticking point, the cheaper parent-taught route is an app rather than print: our Reading.com review covers a subscription at 74.99 dollars a year for up to three children, with the trade-off that it stops around a late first grade reading level rather than running through four levels. If you want printed workbooks in the mix without paying for a level up front, our Hooked on Phonics review covers a 1 dollar first month that renews at 12.99 dollars a month plus shipping and posts a workbook and storybook pack each month, with a ceiling at an early second grade reading level.
Who should buy it, and who should not
Buy it if: you homeschool or are willing to teach a short daily lesson yourself, you want a structured, explicit phonics sequence rather than an app that gamifies practice, or you have more than one child coming up behind the first. Skip it if: you want someone else to do the teaching, or your child needs specialist intervention for a diagnosed difficulty, which is a different service from a curriculum.
If you want a teacher instead of a curriculum
This is the real fork, and it is not about quality. All About Reading is inexpensive in money and expensive in parent time. A live class inverts that: it costs more per month and asks almost nothing of you beyond the daily practice. The Institute of Reading Development, running reading programs since 1970, teaches live online in groups of up to six students, one 50-minute class a week plus about 15 minutes a day of practice, from 199 dollars every four weeks, with one-to-one tutoring from 349 dollars every four weeks.
Two honest differences before you compare them. First, one month of group classes costs more than a whole All About Reading level. Second, the Institute of Reading Development does not describe its programs as structured literacy or Orton-Gillingham anywhere on its pages, while All About Learning Press does so repeatedly, so a parent whose specific requirement is a structured-literacy method should stay with the curriculum. Our reading hub covers the refund terms and the full trade-offs of the class route.
See Institute of Reading Development programs and pricing
Frequently asked questions
How much does All About Reading cost?
The Pre-reading program is 119.95 dollars and each of Levels 1 to 4 is 159.95 dollars, so the full sequence for one child is about 760 dollars spread over several years. Letter tiles are a one-time 25.95 dollars per household and a Review Box is 17.95 dollars per student. A second child re-uses the teacher manual and readers and needs only a 67.95 dollar Student Packet plus a Review Box. Prices verified July 23, 2026.
Is All About Reading Orton-Gillingham based?
Yes, by the publisher’s own description. All About Learning Press says the program is "Based on the proven research of Orton-Gillingham" and describes its instruction as multisensory, sequential, incremental, cumulative and explicit, and calls All About Reading a structured literacy program that follows the science of reading. That is the company describing itself, but the published lesson structure is consistent with it.
What grade is All About Reading Level 1 for?
None, and the company says so directly. Its FAQ states that the level numbers do not refer to grade levels and that lessons are mastery-based, so a book labelled Level 1 is not meant to suit all first graders. Placement comes from the free placement test rather than from your child’s age or grade.
How long does one level of All About Reading take?
There is no fixed answer, which is worth knowing before you plan a school year. Level 1 has 53 lessons, but the publisher states that a lesson is not a day and that some lessons may take a week or more. The recommended pace is about 20 minutes a day of lessons plus 20 minutes of reading aloud, so a level can run anywhere from a few months to a full year.
Can you return All About Reading if it does not work out?
Yes, within one year, and the materials can go back in any condition. The published terms have three limits worth knowing: the refund excludes shipping, it applies only to purchases made directly from All About Learning Press rather than from a reseller, and educational savings account purchases get 45 days instead of a year.
How we reach these verdicts, and the sources behind them, is on our methodology page. Every price, level description, policy and methodology quote on this page was read from All About Learning Press's own pages and verified July 23, 2026. We have no commercial relationship with All About Learning Press and do not link to it; ratings shown on its site belong to the company that collected them.