Iris Scarfone
Iris has always believed that the love of reading begins at home. When her son Ronald was a baby, she and her husband Frank taught him to read by placing words on posterboards around the house — simple, common words first. That experience shaped her approach to writing for children: short sentences, repetition, rhythm, and illustrations that tell the story alongside the words.
Frank Scarfone
Frank Scarfone co-developed the at-home reading method that inspired Three Baby Birdies. Together with Iris, he surrounded their son Ronald with simple words on posterboards from infancy — creating an immersive language environment that helped Ronald read well before starting school. That philosophy of learning through environment and repetition is at the heart of every page of this book.
Ronald Scarfone
Iris's son Ronald illustrated Three Baby Birdies. After being taught to read at home, he went on to become a reading teacher and then a public librarian. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Art Education, a Master's in Reading Education, and a Master's in Library Science — making him uniquely suited to illustrate a book designed to help children understand stories through pictures as much as words.
Reading begins at home
Frank and Iris Scarfone started with posterboards. Words like "mommy," "daddy," "cat," and "dog" went up on the walls of their home when Ronald was still a baby. By making words part of the environment — visible, repeated, connected to real things — they helped Ronald build a relationship with language before he could even hold a book.
Three Baby Birdies carries that same philosophy into a storybook: short, rhythmic sentences, repetition that builds familiarity, and illustrations that depict exactly what the words describe — so a child can follow the story through the pictures even before they can read a word.
Repetition
Repetition in language builds pattern recognition. Children learn to predict what comes next — a key step toward reading fluency.
Rhythm
Rhyming, rhythmic text makes read-alouds fun and memorable. Children who enjoy being read to become children who want to read.
Visual storytelling
Illustrations that match the text help children connect words to meaning — building vocabulary through context, not memorization.