A pair of Montreal-based educators is aiming to change how children learn to read, with a new phonics-driven program that combines structured learning with storytelling and visual aids.
“The Reading Adventures of CeCe and the Super 6,” created by Shawna Fleischer and Lianne Routtenberg through their company CogniQuest Learning, is designed for children aged four to nine — years they describe as critical for building strong literacy foundations.
The program follows CeCe, a young explorer from Paperback Lane, on a quest to rescue the “Super 6,” a group of vowel characters captured by a villain known as the Scrambler. Through the story, children learn how sounds form words, progressing step by step rather than relying on memorization or guessing.
Fleischer and Routtenberg, both graduates of McGill University, say the idea for the program developed over years of teaching and personal experience raising children.
“Lianne and I met years ago when we were teaching at school. And we were always each other’s confidantes. We always discussed the children in our classroom and what would be the best way to work with the children in school,” Fleischer said.
“And then we raised our children, and sometimes there were some challenges. And luckily Lianne and I are two educators, and we had each other to depend on.”
Reflecting on those experiences, the pair recognized how difficult it can be for families to navigate the education system and find effective support.
“It’s hard. Being a parent is hard. It’s not always easy to navigate. If your child doesn’t fit into that perfect little box, it’s very hard to find the right resources,” Fleischer said. “We said, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we took all of the knowledge that we had and gave parents something that they can actually be able to teach their children at home and not have to spend so much money on expensive tutors and even wasting their time and money? Because sometimes the schools suggest maybe a resource that might not be the best resource for your child at the time.”
The program was also shaped by what they saw in classrooms, where some students struggled to keep up, particularly with reading.
“Children who aren’t reading by Grade 3 face significant challenges,” Fleischer said. “In Grade 3, they need to learn, and the only way to learn is to be able to read.”
She said many existing approaches emphasize recognizing whole words, rather than understanding how sounds work together.
“A lot of children were just having problems with phonetics, learning to read. The schools are very focused on the whole language approach. Lianne and I created this program as a phonics program so parents can teach their children how to read at home.”
At the centre of the series is the POP Method — short for Phonics Organizational Program — which breaks down the rules of English into manageable steps.
“We went back to basics and looked at all of the rules of the English language, all the phonetic rules,” Fleischer said. “We organized it into what we call CeCe’s map, which is a systematic approach to learning.”
The “map” acts as a visual guide, allowing children to build knowledge incrementally as they move through each volume.
“You’re learning the phonics, so that’s the phonics part. Then you have the organizational. As you do the activities and you learn each letter, you’re putting it back on CeCe’s map. And it’s a systematic approach, which means that you’re learning with each volume all the way up to volume 15.”
Visual cues play a key role in helping children connect sounds to letters and words.
“Children can manipulate the map just by looking at the visual clues,” Fleischer added. “The sounds of the visual cues help them.”
Before bringing the program to market, the creators spent four years testing it with children, including those with diagnosed learning challenges.
“We wanted to make sure that children could really be successful,” Fleischer said.
The books are now available through major retailers such as Amazon and Indigo, and have begun to gain traction in some schools.
“Some schools have started to implement it into the school system because they felt there was a learning gap that needed to be filled,” she said.
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Beyond reading skills, Fleischer said the program has had a noticeable impact on children’s confidence and overall well-being.
“What we’ve seen is the results are unbelievable,” she expressed.
“What we have are some parents that are actually quite desperate. ‘Please help me. My child has been going for therapy for three years. I’ve spent so much money on tutors, literacy coaches, and my child is not getting anywhere.’ By using the program, what we see is we have children that are non-readers that are able to be readers.”
The effects, she added, extend beyond the classroom.
“This success has been wonderful and it doesn’t just impact the child, but it also impacts the family in its entirety.”
“We’ve really seen some wonderful changes, not just in reading, but how a child perceives themselves and the confidence that they feel.”
Routtenberg said the program’s visual design and storytelling elements were carefully crafted to keep children engaged.
“I am a huge cartoon fan or a cartoon nerd, whatever you want to call it. And so it was really a pleasure to be able to bring the program to life using illustration,” she said.
The story itself was inspired by a real-life child named CeCe. She is now in high school, but when she was nine, it was actually her idea behind “The Reading Adventures of CeCe and the Super 6” — to take kids on an adventure, with a fun-loving villain named the Scrambler who scrambled words and lived on Devil Egg Island. She was the impetus for the storyline, and the creators said they wanted to honour her, which is why they named the series after her.
The program’s development also took several years, with Routtenberg noting it evolved through repeated testing and refinement with children before being finalized.
Bright visuals and relatable characters are intended to make children feel part of the journey.
“We wanted kids to be enthused and we wanted them to feel really part of this story and part of this journey. So we wanted to make characters that they could love and identify with and to be fun and colourful, and that’s kind of how we created the characters. We wanted them to be appealing.”
For both educators, the long-term goal extends beyond early reading.
“I really want children to be empowered, to become critical thinkers, to seek out information on their own, to become contributing members of society, you know, to think for themselves and to be innovators. So I hope that this is the first step in their long, wonderful journey,” Routtenberg said.
“It’s always been a passion of mine and Lianne’s to create something that can really help parents navigate the educational system. And what’s really nice to see is that it’s helping these children. It’s helping them in a way that other programs haven’t been able to help them. And it’s just a wonderful feeling,” added Fleischer.
Through CogniQuest Learning, Fleischer and Routtenberg say they hope their program will help more families build strong literacy skills early — setting children up for success in school and beyond.
