Illustrator Antoinette Sheffield
It is with great sadness that we share with you the passing of Antoinette Sheffield, dearest friend, and Fun Phonics collaborator on July 20, 2024. Read obituary [+].
Antoinette Sheffield was awarded a scholarship to the Dayton Art Institute and attended the University of Dayton, Ohio State University, Sinclair Community College and the University of New Mexico in Los Alamos. Areas of study included Art, Nursing, Anatomy and Fine Arts.
Sheffield illustrated FUN PHONICS, Children, Today’s Joy! She developed the states reference pages, and illustrated the text, activity pages, and the Reference Guide. She also created the Sizzy Books logo. Researching the natural history of the plants and animals in her illustrations, and studying about the people and places in the stories was as enjoyable as drawing them. With Trish Mylet, the writer of the FUN PHONICS! set, Sheffield co-developed the integrated curriculum for the books and co-published the books under the Sizzy Books logo.
The illustrator wrote and illustrated a monthly column for the High Cincinnatians newsletter. She received a Photography Award for a photograph LEARNING, A SPRINGTIME ADVENTURE that accompanied her article in The National Montessori Reporter. Her art has been exhibited at the University of New Mexico in Los Alamos.
Sheffield’s previous occupations were in the areas of nursing, sales and fashion. She has organized and coordinated various conferences and fund-raising events. Besides art, Sheffield loves hiking with her family and friends, reading, organic gardening, cooking, and traveling. She enjoys life in beautiful New Mexico.
Writer Trish Mylet
Trish Mylet received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arizona where she majored in English. Mylet taught reading skills, drawing from various methods including the California Phonetic Reading Program, the Monterey Reading Program and the Professor Phonics Program, and is certified as an English as a Second Language tutor through Laubach Literacy International.
Mylet wrote the beginning reader and activity set FUN PHONICS, Children, Today’s Joy! including its Reference Guide, and developed the entire phonic program. With Antoinette Sheffield, the illustrator of the FUN PHONICS! set, Mylet co-developed the integrated curriculum of the books and co-published the books under the logo Sizzy Books.
It was through her tutoring experience that Mylet discovered the unique technique of focusing on words with short and long vowel letters in the initial position (ax, Ann, Abe, ate) rather than in the medial word position (cat, hat, cake, late) to help beginning readers more easily recognize and distinguish the vowel sounds. Mylet’s success with this innovative method led her to develop and write two new phonic sets which implement this technique and are also online free at www.FreePhoneticReaders.com.
Mylet, a former nun, store detective, governess, and health spa manager taught preschool in the Head Start program, tutored adults through the Laubach Literacy Program and elementary students through the Monterey reading program. The writer also received an Associate Degree from the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Mylet travels extensively and writes in a variety of genres.
Writings:
- MY WORLD – Award of Merit, Poetry Society of Colorado
- FAMILY NIGHT – The National Montessori Reporter
- FUN PHONICS, Children, Today’s Joy!. An integrated beginning reader and activity set of 19 books which incorporates both phonics and geography. Mylet developed the phonics program and wrote the music, stories and program guide. Published in 1988 and Revised in 2011
- FREE PHONETIC READERS – www.freephoneticreaders.com
- ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE WITH CHILDREN -The Little Bugle
- MONTESSORI VISITORS – The Los Alamos Monitor
- YOU, MY DAUGHTER – Euterpe, anthology of poems, Mile High Poetry Society
