AUTHOR
Susan Robinson
Friday, July 30, 2021 3:45 PM
by Matthew Van Fleet
Take your child on safari!
Pull-tabs, textures, and a foldout page engage toddlers as they identify more than 30 animals and observe all the different head types and shapes. They also learn about opposites and actions. You can also talk about the different facial expressions the animals present. Van Fleet’s other books (Tails, Dog, Cat, Pet, Sniff, Moo, to name just a few) are all delightful reads with the same watercolor illustration style.
Have your child suggest other animals that are not in the book. What shapes are their heads? Are they similar to any in the book? Have your child move the way the different animals move. Play a musical selection and ask your child to pick the animal it best reflects. Cut out the letters H e a d s from card stock and let your child arrange them to spell Heads.
by Gyo Fujikawa
Every child needs to know these classic rhymes.
Gyo Fujikawa rates two books on my list because her books are so filled with things to analyze and discuss. In Mother Goose, lovely illustrations accompany both well-known (“Baa, Baa, Black Sheep”) and obscure (“Three Ghostesses”) nursery rhymes.
At first, children love the sing-song rhythms and rhymes of nursery rhymes. This is, after all, what makes the little poems so enduring. Later, children ask what the poems mean, allowing for some interesting discussions. My granddaughter was obsessed with “The Old Woman in a Shoe.” She was fascinated by the shoe-house full of beds, loved choosing beds for the children, wondered why some were crying, and was indignant that the woman spanked them.
I began by reading the most famous poems, especially because they are accompanied by drawings. Then I chose poems with wit, humor, or wordplay. Because nursery rhymes originated from oral traditions and were written down long ago, some feature characters displaying unpleasant, violent, or bullying behaviors. For example, in “Taffy was a Welshman,” Taffy steals from the narrator, who tracks him down and throws a bone at his head. Don’t let this turn you off. “Taffy” is one of my granddaughter’s favorites, probably because of the catchy rhythm. With young children, skip the rhymes you find offensive; with older kids, use them as jumping-off points for thoughtful discussion. Abby and I had many discussions about the immorality of Taffy’s thievery and why the narrator responded with violence.
It is fun to make up backstories for the characters and rhymes. For example, in “Diddle, Diddle Dumpling,” why did my son John go to bed with his trousers on?
Many nursery rhymes have become associated with specific melodies. For example, we can all sing the tune to “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” As you share the poems with your child, sing the ones you know and make up your own melodies for others. My kids always prefer the rhymes I sing to those I simply read. Help your child learn the rhymes and melodies and encourage him to choose a rhyme to memorize. Beat out or clap a rhythm for a poem. “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, Have you any wool?” would sound like this: / / / / /////. If you have several children, have them present a pageant in which each recites a rhyme and does a dance to accompany it.
by Ezra Jack Keats
The first picture book to feature an African-American main character.
At first glance, this is a lovely story about a little boy having fun in the snow—making tracks, a snowman, and a snow angel. Children will love comparing Peter’s snow adventures to their own. The Caldecott Medal winner’s illustrations are striking, with bold colors and simple shapes. But the story contains many layers of meaning.
As America struggled with race relations, Keats collaged patterned papers from various countries to position Peter in the American mainstream, part of the great melting pot. And Peter symbolically breaks free of cultural subjugation as, rather than cowering in the shadows, he stands out in his red snowsuit, freely exploring his world, encountering and dealing with adversity, and coming home to the security of a loving mother.
It is important that African-American children see themselves in picture books. It is equally important that Caucasian children see characters of other races and cultures as worthy protagonists. I let the story speak for itself. My kids loved the story and I’ve never had anyone mention Peter’s color.
To develop thinking skills, ask: What else could you use to make different tracks in the snow, and what would the tracks look like? What happened to Peter’s snowball? Why couldn’t he participate in the snowball fight? Have your child act out Peter’s day—see if she can remember the events in the right sequence.
by Bill Martin Jr.
and John Archambault
Rhythm, rhyme, letters tumbling down—a fun read.
I can recite the entire book, so you can guess how many times I’ve read it. My kids love the sing-song lyrics and repetition: “A told B, and B told C, ‘I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree’… Chicka chicka boom boom! Will there be enough room?” The bright colors and simple shapes are irresistible.
When you open the front cover, you see the letters of the alphabet. My kids and I always pointed to the letters as we sang the alphabet song. In the story, I injected emotions after the letters fell. For example, I read “Skinned knee d and stubbed toe e” with a sad voice. My kids liked when I read “Chicka chicka” and let them chime in with “boom boom!”
Cut a coconut tree out of construction paper and tape it to your fridge. Let your child use letter magnets to re-enact the story. Hilarious fun when the letters fall! Encourage kids to choose a letter and create a dance to show how it climbed the tree.
by Laura Numeroff
A delightful take on cause and effect.
“If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk.” And soon. The little mouse runs the boy ragged but is so stinkin’ cute, no one minds. A perennial favorite at our house, the book has won multiple awards. The illustrations complement the text and portray the characters and story beautifully. Our favorite is the mouse cutting his hair amid a cloud of tiny hairs—or maybe where he fluffs his powder puff pillow. The kids loved anticipating the mouse’s next demand and declaring it out loud before I revealed the page.
If you like this book, there are similar books in the series: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and If You Give a Moose a Muffin, to name a few.
After reading the story, I asked the kids to draw their own pictures, then we Scotch-taped them to the refrigerator like the mouse did. Questions spurred creative thinking: What other objects could be used as a bed for the mouse? Why did the mouse leave his home and family? You and your child can write your own “If...then...” story for the mouse or another character. And of course, reading the book always made us hungry for cookies and milk.
by Eric Carle
Repetition and vibrant collages combine in an unforgettable story.
Eric Carle’s incomparable collages perfectly accompany a story with the repetition children love. One after another, animals try to distract spider: “go for a ride,” “eat some grass.” But she doesn’t answer, too busy spinning her web. The ending displays her beautiful, useful web, helping to allay fears about spiders.
This is a perfect book for creating character voices. For example, I used a grunting voice for the pig: “Want to roll in the mud?” I had the kids think of other animals, what sounds they would make, and what they would ask the spider to do. Kids can emulate Carle’s collage style in creating their own animals. We also tracked the spider’s progress as she spun her web throughout the book, tracing the raised web strands with our fingers. This is a perfect story for young children to act out together.
by James Diaz
If you only buy one book about colors, make this the one.
Hundreds of picture books teach colors. This one is the most fun and offers the most opportunities for extending thinking skills. There are so many things for kids to DO—they can work a few of the moving parts at first, then gradually gain skills for others. This keeps them coming back for more. The colors are vibrant and the illustrations offer enough variety to let you focus on different ones as your child progresses. If you like this book, there are others in the series: My First Jumbo Book of Shapes, ...Letters, ...Dinosaurs, to name a few.
On each page, have your child suggest other objects that are that color. Google a picture of each, print them out and have her make book pages for them. Xerox a few pictures in black and white and cut them out. Let your child choose new colors for them. In your child’s playroom, have her go find an object with the color you specify. Do some creative movement: ask your child to think of a color and move the way that color makes her feel. You guess the color she displays through movement.
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