Yup. I used those books learning phonics, but they were designed for whole word instruction.
You can tell because the books use a very limited number of words (repeated ad nauseum) because the words must be learned by sight, hence the inane dialogue:
"Look Jane" said Dick.
"I see," said Jane.
"Look Spot," said Jane.
"Good Spot!," said Dick.
This rubric accidentally led to the success of Dr. Seuss. He was instructed by his publisher to limit the number of words in his book to 50 or less. The result? The Cat in the Hat. The rest is history.