The Bug Club Phonics Decodable Books were developed by Pearson UK. They are created by Rhona Johnston and Joyce Watson—authors of the Clackmannanshire Report: The Effects of Synthetic Phonics Teaching on Reading and Spelling Attainment.
The Clackmannanshire Report follows a seven-year longitudinal study by The Scottish Executive into the effectiveness of a synthetic phonics program in teaching reading and spelling. So groundbreaking was this research that Pearson approached the report's authors to develop the synthetic phonics program Bug Club Phonics.
About the Clackmannanshire Research
This study examined the effectiveness of a synthetic phonics program in teaching reading and spelling. Around 300 children in Primary 1 (equivalent to Kindergarten in Canada) were divided into three groups. One group learnt by the synthetic phonics method, one by the standard analytic phonics method, and one by an analytic phonics program that included systematic phonemic awareness teaching without reference to print. At the end of the program, the synthetic phonics taught group were reading and spelling seven months ahead of chronological age. They read words around seven months ahead of the other two groups and were eight to nine months ahead in spelling. The other two groups then carried out the synthetic phonics program, completing it by the end of Primary 1.
They followed all these children's progress for seven years, examining their performance in word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension. At the end of the study, the authors concluded that the synthetic phonics approach, as part of the reading curriculum, resulted in better spelling and reading comprehension.
Here is a link to the Clackmannanshire Research Report: https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/3000/https://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/36496/0023582.pdf/