Best of The Reader

Best of The Reader was a website that hosted a series of e-books for adult literacy and English language learners. The website was retired in 2023. Due to continued interest in the resource, we are making the e-books available at the Decoda Literacy Library as physical copies as well as e-books to download in PDF format.

The stories, recipes, puzzles and other material in the e-books were written by Joan Acosta, the editor of The Westcoast Reader (1982-2009), a newspaper designed to help learners develop reading and language skills.

Each of the 15 books features 8 to 10 stories, accompanied by exercises and activities as well as an answer key to support independent learning. A Teachers’ Guide offers ideas and suggestions for how to use the e-books with learners.

Most of the e-books are available at three reading levels. These are the symbols for each level:

The three levels represented by 1 book, 2 books or 3 books respectively.

The following books are available at the Decoda Literacy Library:

Please contact library@decoda.ca if you would like to check out the physical copies or if you have any questions.