In 2023, I launched Betterfly Books with one mission:

CREATE READING CONFIDENCE to prevent reading struggles.

After a decade of tutoring struggling elementary readers, I hit a wall. Some older students just weren’t catching up, and I kept wishing I could turn back time to help them before these reading challenges ever started. But reality kicked in—so I put on my teaching hat and set out to find a better way.

That’s when I started developing a list of decodable words that were foolproof—no tricky bits, just solid phonics that would help kids master reading. The results were promising, and I knew I was onto something! 

Around this time, I also started drawing caricatures, and an idea hit me: instead of endlessly searching for the perfect book series, why not create my own? So, I combined my new word list with my passion for illustration to create books that could teach any child to read—at just the right moment in their learning journey.

The road wasn’t easy. Writing interesting stories with only a few letters is a tough challenge, which is why such stories are so rare. After finishing the first book, the overwhelming task of continuing the project stalled me for a long time. However, after much trial and error, I realized that these books were perfect for helping young children gain reading independence from the start, or serve as an effective first reading intervention.

Fast forward almost another decade, and I’m proud to introduce The Runway Into Reading—the first stage of that “time machine" I imagined for reading success. 

Join us in this mission to wipe out illiteracy, one confident reader at a time.

Every student deserves it. 

Jedd Bluhm, Founder

Betterfly Books 

The Runway into Reading

Just Blend It