A study examined th phonics instruction that five basal reader series provide from kindergarten through grade six. The five basal programs (designated as Series A through E) that were examined are both similar and dissimilar in the recommendations they make for phonics. One series covers as many as 129 letter-sound correspondences; another covers 87. All five series pay considerable attention to consonant sounds in their kindergarten manuals and to numerous ways to spell long vowel sounds. Two of the five series deal with blending as a means for identifying words; another uses blending to emphasize whatever sound is receiving attention. Either way, the blending is done mostly by the teacher, not the children. The other two programs, neither of which identifies sounds directly, do not refer to blending. An omission in all five series is suggestions for teaching children how to use letter-sound correspondences with flexibility. Four of the five series teach a few generalizations for dividing words into syllables; the fifth series omits generalizations for syllabication. All five programs fail to deal with phonics in a way that makes its value for reading apparent to children. Instead, the programs succeed in demonstrating how phonics instruction can be a waste of time. Findings reveal the wide gap that exists between the phonics that is taught and the recommendations that are made for dealing with new vocabulary. (Seven tables of data and five figures are included.) (MG)