“This straightforward book, with lots of white space, and short explanations, is great for helping a student who doesn’t write cursive, but wants to be able to read it when necessary. Expertly written and easy to use. Especially helpful when dyslexia, CP, or autism interfere with writing.”
– Yvonna Graham
“I definitely want to support you. Your book is a clever and unique way of promoting cursive competence. … I applaud you for your entrepreneurial spirit. Love that you got it published through National Autism Resources. … it is my pleasure to share a testimonial with you.”
– Beverly H. Moskowitz, DOT MS OTR/L FAOTA
President and CEO Real OT Solutions, Inc.
“READ CURSIVE FAST is an excellent practical guide that helps you to learn how to read any cursive text.
Even 100 years ago, all children were taught the ability to write in beautifully slanted cursive handwriting in schools. Today, a lot has changed.
And I know, from my own experience, that cursive causes the most significant difficulty and often becomes a barrier to reading—all because there are almost endless variations of lettering in this kind of writing, and the boundaries of some graphic characters are blurred. Further, the less the writer controls the calligraphic quality of his cursive, the more likely he is to write unreadable letters.
Kate Gladstone has written a book that helps students achieve automaticity in decoding cursive in a short time.
The author teaches us to find letters in continuous intricate patterns of curls. Each lesson contains an explanation of writing rules in simple language, supported by accessible examples, and practice exercises.
The book is well structured. Starting with simple individual letters and words, we realize, by the end of the book, that we can read documents from about 200 years ago.
This is amazing!
The ability to read cursive text significantly expands learning opportunities. READ CURSIVE FAST is an easy and enjoyable way to master this skill.”
– Olga Shemyakina,
CEO, RocKids
“Read Cursive Fast is an excellent resource for students, educators, and OTs. I appreciated the simple layout, making it easy to read and comprehend. The code-crackers provide readers with an excellent visual. I enjoyed learning the history of the evolution of cursive writing.”
– Kelli Fetter
founder of Handwriting Solutions,
Handwriting Instructional Specialist,
OT Advisory Board Member of the Handwriting Collaborative,
and mother of a child diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia.
“This will be an amazing resource.”
— Jonathan Dubay
Owner of Handwriting Success
“I’ve been thinking a great deal recently about the barriers individuals sometimes face in communication. I know from work with my life coaching clients that unrecognized or small obstacles can accumulate to form bigger or insurmountable problems for some individuals–autistic or not! Kate Gladstone’s book, READ CURSIVE FAST, intrigued me with its notion that the ability to read cursive writing might be one such barrier. I was curious about Gladstone’s book as a teaching tool, and I was very favorably impressed with what I saw. Gladstone takes a systematic approach to the alphabet. She structures her instruction so that the reader can quickly experience success, then build upon that success. Her letter groupings are logical and clearly explained. A progress bar at the beginning of each chapter offers extra encouragement to the reader who can visually track how quickly they are speeding toward mastery. Writing with a warm, engaging style (and a bit of humor), Gladstone is a very encouraging and far-from-boring teacher. The book has a clear and inviting graphic layout, without overwhelming the reader with too much text. I like the way she uses bold ink to trace the code embedded within each of her sample letters. Clear arrows and identifying labels help the reader see the distinguishing features she is describing. Although already a reader of cursive handwriting myself, I found it very useful to learn some of the reasons behind some of the more difficult letters to decipher–especially those in old cursive manuscripts. If learning how to read cursive would help remove a barrier to your own ability to communicate, I highly recommend Gladstone’s effective, non-intimidating guide!”
— Jan Campito, M.S., M.Phil.
Specialized Life/College/Career Coach
“This book makes reading cursive perfectly simple.”
— Fiona, age 18
“I like the way you build with knowing some letters and give practice before moving onto new letters. … really did a great job generalizing the information given to be able to read cursive for the first time ever. I look forward to him mastering all the letters in cursive.”
— Jeniver Boyer
Certified teacher and homeschooling mom
“I found your book especially interesting! It’s especially helpful when you include actual handwriting samples. This creates the experience of trying to read the cursive, and trying to acclimate to the individual’s handwriting style. … Letters that are confusing for me are the uppercase Q, G, J, I, and T. Lowercase letters that are confusing for me are z, r, and f. So your discussions of the origins of how these letters came to be written in cursive, as well as your examples of the different ways in which people currently write those letters, are very helpful. Thank you!”
— Nora Kobos
Human Resources Professional and mother of two
“Love the book! Fantastic! Great engaging examples for kids aged 10, I would guess, and above. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the history of the letters, as well as the information given about the background.”
— Alisa Brown
Mother of six children
“Overall, we really enjoyed this book. Wyatt (age 11, 6th grade) had fun with it and did really well. My daughter Elsha (age 7, 1st grade) had no problems reading the cursive words in the first few chapters. Wyatt completed the entire book with me. He liked the code-cracker graphics; he thought they were very useful. He enjoyed the stories chapter . … He did a good job with the Declaration of Independence. Wyatt really seemed to get a lot from reading the book, and it was fun reading it with him and seeing his progress. The book is well organized, has a good pace, and I like that it provides historical context and vocabulary for understanding letter forms. I think the approach of ‘handwriting detective’ is a good one because, as Wyatt learned quickly in the historical documents chapter, a lot of cursive reading is deciphering the nuances of every writer. I would definitely be interested in ordering a copy of the book when it’s published. Elsha is the more writing-inclined of the two and I think she would enjoy it immensely in a year or two. I know a teacher or two who would be very interested in this type of book. Hope this feedback is useful. Thanks for the opportunity to do this! We both found it enjoyable and rewarding.”
— Myles Miller
Father of 2
Member of the handwriting improvement group “Rock Your Handwriting”
“The inclusion of the history of each letterform is, in my opinion, an enhancement (excellent touch) that your readers will appreciate. Many of the kiddos and adults I have worked with have asked about the origins of certain letterforms and I think that this will be very popular. The ‘Stop and Think’ questions for readers to reflect and respond are extremely important well written. The chapter on reading historical documents pulls this whole book together. As you well know, and we have often discussed, the ability to read primary source documents is the major reason many people (although not all educators) cite for teaching cursive writing. You have provided an excellent foundation, within this chapter, for students in grade 4 and up to ‘decipher’ the materials required for today’s social studies classes.”
— Kathleen Wright
Founder and Executive Director of the Handwriting Collaborative
Workshop Presenter Independent Educational Consultant
and mother of two
“I really liked how your book shows common patterns used for specific letters, and how it provides specific tips/tricks for identifying different letters. I also appreciated how the book provided single practice words to read with the code-crackers outlined on the following pages. Another thing I like is how you started out with commonly used fundamental letters and build up from there. The layout was nice and easy to follow along. It was especially nice to have an index where you can skip around between different chapters. I specifically struggle with f and z, so this was helpful for me.”
— Renee,
age 23, who has struggled with reading cursive.
“This book is similar to the teaching I had as a young child to learn cursive writing. It will help a child to improve both their penmanship and abilities to read cursive.”
— Temple Grandin
Author, The Way I See It
Thinking in Pictures
“Kate, this is so wonderful!! I was so elated to study your work. I think it might even help me do better with my own handwriting. I can’t express how much this book means to me and how well it is done. You are a jewel, a diamond in the rough in teaching an explaining cursive. As I told you earlier, I am a Co-Director for a Family History Center and teach genealogy to those of all walks of life. I do this free, with no charge, and teach every day. This will help me teach the young adults (who are of the digital age) about reading cursive in genealogy, if I may have your permission to do so. I will give you all the credit as I teach them. I would love to see you produce another book on old English writing! Gothic as well would be fantastic…. With that said, I also want to Thank You for all your hard work in putting this book together. It is very much appreciated. Blessings to you and yours.”
— Cher Camacho
Co-Director
“A very easy read and a simple four-step process make it easy for students and adults to learn how to read cursive. Subtly, Gladstone is also teaching how to write cursive too. The explanation of the script from the Declaration of Independence was very enriching.”
— Cheri Dotterer, MS, OTR/L
Author, Handwriting Brain-Body DisConnect
Dysgraphia Consultant and Founder of DysgraphiaConsultant.com and CheriDotterer.com
Dysgraphia Specialist and OT Advisory Board Member of
The Handwriting Collaborative
“I was simply thrilled when I read all the way through Read Cursive Fast. There is a great need for your excellent book. When I taught Junior High Spanish 14 years ago, I was not prepared for the groans that went up when I started writing my excellent cursive on the chalkboard. Most of my students were simply incapable of reading cursive.
Many of the students insisted that it was impossible for them to learn to read cursive since they had never even once seen it or written any during their elementary career. … It broke my heart to think of how handicapped these students were when it comes to doing independent research involving the handwriting of previous generations. This will make a good Christmas present for the countless folk in America who would like to learn to read cursive, plus it just contains a lot of well-researched and carefully organized interesting and useful information.
Few can write or read cursive since the schools have neglected to teach this vital skill.
I am delighted to wholeheartedly recommend Kate Gladstone’s highly informative and exciting new book, Read Cursive Fast. … Kate’s book lives up to its title. She presents in crystal-clear detail every aspect of cursive handwriting. This is THE BOOK that can teach ANYONE to read cursive in its various forms very quickly and painlessly.
I would like to congratulate you on a real masterpiece covering all the basis in a most helpful manner.
I wish wide use for you book. It is truly a Book for Our Times. It has the potential to help a lot of people.
And it is just plain fun!”
– Donald Potter
donpotter.net
blendphonics.org
“Read Cursive Fast is well laid out, comprehensive, and fun to use! Kate has subtly made people look at their handwriting by showing them how to read cursive!”
— Frank Limper,
owner of Federalist Pens and Paper
