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Teaching a talking dog: How ‘Reading Buddies’ helps build early literacy skills
August 14, 2025 Leave a Comment
“Little by little, letter by letter,” The Reading League’s Reading Buddies is making foundational literacy accessible to its viewers.
The Emmy-nominated children’s series follows Dusty the dog, who’s learning to read with help from his best friends Dott, Alphabott and his after-school reading club, the Alphabateers. In each episode, Dusty learns about letters and sounds, earning a new Alphabadge to celebrate his reading journey. Its short segments, charming puppets and vintage aesthetic are reminiscent of old PBS favorites like Between the Lions and Lamb Chop’s Play-Along. It also centers kids as experts, similar to newer PBS KIDS shows like Odd Squad.
The Reading Buddies season 2 cast.
Reading Buddies was developed by The Reading League, a nonprofit working to increase the use of evidence-aligned literacy instruction based on the science of reading. After pandemic restrictions put their in-person work on hold, they contributed to on-air instruction that PBS member station WCNY in Syracuse, New York, was providing.
As the COVID-19 pandemic persisted, “We were getting a lot of requests from parents saying, ‘How do we teach our kids at home?’” explained Toni Ann Walsh, The Reading League chief program officer and Reading Buddies executive producer. They brainstormed with WCNY and pitched a “television show that wasn’t so obviously educational. We’re using fun and games and puzzles to be able to learn.”
Through what Walsh calls “a lot of divine intervention,” they connected with Broadway performers and writers Andrea Dotto and Brendan Malafronte, who were living near WCNY while Broadway was put on hold. Dotto and Malafronte, who are also married, were already performing and creating content as Dott and Dusty. Their talents and experience were valuable assets as The Reading League ventured into media production. “I know nothing about television shows, right? Like, I’m buying costumes at Target,” Walsh laughed about her first days as executive producer.
“We were able to do that first season in the middle of the chaos of COVID because the three actors … were already in a COVID pod,” Walsh said. Brendan’s sister, Eryn Malafronte, joined the show to play Alphabott.
Alphabott, Dusty and Dott, played by Eryn Malafronte, Brendan Malafronte and Andrea Dotto, respectively.
Dotto and Malafronte took a training course The Reading League offers educators to align each segment of the show with the science of reading. “For example, when you see the writing segments, there’s actual language that is appropriate to use when you describe how to write out an M,” Walsh explained. The Reading League’s president and CEO Dr. Maria Murray was the curriculum director. “She was there not only to make sure in the script that the wording was right, but when we were capturing it on the sound stage, nothing extra got added, nothing got ad-libbed in a way that changed what the meaning was.”
A few weeks after the show began airing, WCNY president and CEO Mitch Gelman met with Walsh and Murray. “He just looks at us dead in the eyes, super straight faced, and says, ‘Reading Buddies is doing better than Donkey Hodie and Sesame Street.’” Walsh recalled. The two were floored. “We’re like, alright, maybe this isn’t the COVID band-aid we thought it was going to be.”
They added the Alphabotteers, Dusty’s reading club, to the second season. “If kids are going to connect, they have to see [other kids] in that show … someone who looks like them, who talks like them, who acts like them, who’s their age,” Walsh said. “Those kids – seven, eight, nine years old – were teaching Dusty. I think that that’s why it resonates so well with kids. It’s not a show about teaching kids – it’s teaching this dog how to read, how to have fun, how to interact with stories.”
Jampa, an Alphabotteer, with the two garden gnomes, Mary and Marty.
The Reading League remains committed to making the show as accessible as possible. “Our goal was always to give [the show] out for free … and we’ve said to any PBS station, use it, take it. If it’s something that the folks in your viewing audience would like, and you think that there’s interest there, wonderful! And the hope is … kids can learn how to read, love reading, build their confidence and make it so reading isn’t so scary,” Walsh said.
It’s a valuable resource for Wisconsin educators fulfilling the requirements of Wisconsin Act 20, which focuses on science-based early literacy instruction that emphasizes phonological awareness, oral language development and writing instruction.
All 60 episodes of Reading Buddies are available anytime on PBS, YouTube and YouTube Kids. It’s also broadcast on multiple PBS stations around the country, including on PBS Wisconsin every day at 6:30 a.m. through Sept. 7 and then at 7 a.m. beginning Sept. 8. Educators can find classroom-ready clips and printables on PBS LearningMedia.
