“She was really looking for something to bridge from ‘I know my letters but I can’t read’ to, ‘I have read my first word,’ ” her daughter Lynn Maslen Kertell told The Oregonian in 2013.

Ms. Maslen’s approach was to combine ideas from phonics — the relationship between sounds and spelling patterns — with just enough storytelling to allow a young reader to feel pride in having grasped the tale. Her husband matched the simplicity of the stories with rudimentary drawings that had a childlike quality; many were just outlines, so children could color them in.

In 1995, Ms. Maslen gave The Associated Press a list of suggestions for parents wanting to help their young children read. Sing alphabet songs, real or made up, she advised. Point out short words when reading aloud and ask the child to read them. And, she said, be sensitive to a child’s attention span. Expect the reading sessions to be short.