Happy Children's Book Week

My Amazon Junk Email tells me to 'Clelebrate Children's Book Week' and so I am....

I had a quick skim through the bottom shelf of the lounge book shelf and pulled out some favourites... I'll try and do the other shelves in the next few days :-) I am not going to write a review as such it's just a brief recommendation.

One book that wasn't on the shelf is 'Hooray for Diffendoofer Day' Started By Dr Suess and finished by Jack Prelutsky with illustrations by Lane Smith. This book is about how important it is to think for yourself... and never, in my opinion, has there been a more important or better basis for a children' story than that one! Which is maybe why Dr Suess had it on his 'drawing board' for such a long time never actually finishing it before he died. But the bones were there and the book has been finished by awesome children's poet Jack Prelutsky with very funky pictures by Lane Smith who has used some of Dr S's illustrations in a collagey way within his own pictures. Read it to... your 4 year old and up and up and up... a lot of grown-up's need to read this one especially stuck in a rut teachers! Check out the activities for this book at Suessville.


The other book that I didn't pull out but hopefully will be able to soon is 'Charles' the one I was telling about the other day. I found it at Alibris and hopefully will own it in the not too distant future... way excited about this and just forgot to say. I even love that it is an ex-library copy.


Anyway onto the list of books that we do have....

Time for Bed by Mem Fox. We read this to Kieran from day one(ish). Nice repetitive text and a sweet story. Good for littlies and children starting to read.


Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. Gotta love a lift the flap book if you are a preschooler and any book with animals is a good one. Once again this book is good from birth. And the newer version has pop-up as well as life the flaps. :-)

Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen. In fact any book by Pamela Allen is REALLY good. And this one was simply the first that I found. We also own and love Pear in the Pear Tree, Cuthbert's Babies, My Cat Maisie, Black Dog, Alexander's Outing, Clippty Clop and my fave, The Potato People... you gotta let some old potatoes go to seed and then plant them if you read that one.... lots of cool learning. Read them from birth... Will and I are enjoying Who Sank the Boat and Clippity Clop at the moment. Anyway back to the Book in question... Who Sank the Boat once again has the great repetitive text good for beginner readers, a cool beginner science concept and animals what more do you need!


Don't Put Your Finger in the Jelly Nelly by Nick Sharratt. This was a present for Kieran's 4th Birthday and I think that's a good time to start reading it. It has little holes to put your finger in on each page and the text is stuff like; "Don't Put your finger in the jelly Nelly! .... You might upset a jellyphant!" You probably need to be 4 or a mart 3 year old to appreciate the punny jokes!


'Rumble in the Jungle' by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz. A book of poems about Jungle animals. We don't read enough poetry to children. This book has great pictures!! There are a few others which are great if your little person likes fish go with 'Commotion in the Ocean' or for farmyard fun 'Cock-a-doodle-doo! Barnyard Hullabaloo'. The author also wrote these which we have enjoyed; 'K is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo', 'Giraffes can't Dance', 'The Lion who wanted to love', 'Love is a handful of Honey' and 'Heaven is having you' the latter moves me to tears (but then it's not hard to do that :-) ).


Lots of boys, but Gifted boys especially, often go through a Dinosaur phase and Kieran was no exception so we have LOTS of dinosaur books but without a doubt the best fiction picture book is 'Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp' by Carol Diggory Shields Illustrated by Scott Nash who does COOL pictures!! I love that this book is written in rhyming couplets, I love that it uses the dinosaurs real names (this is definitely a book you have to read aloud to yourself at least once before you read it to a child even if you are a paleontologist). It's fun and it's funky and has very cool text.....

"The party went on- it was so outrageous,
They stayed up well past the late Cretaceous"

Read this to your dino loving 3 year old or older for the not so Dino fanantics... you'll soon be boomalacka-ing away together.

Just a few little notes on reading aloud;

• do it everyday!
• read the book aloud to yourself first, it's hard to get an idea of rhythm right off the bat.
  
• do it everyday!
• You are never too old. I have good grown up friends that read aloud to each other.
• do it everyday!
• There are no age limits on books- K and M are really enjoying revisiting old faves with Will.
• do it everyday!
• You should enjoy it as well... if your not there's something wrong...write me and we'll figure it out.
• Did I say do it everyday?
  

If you do do it everyday or most days (at least three picture books a day is best) from age 1 day (or older if your child is already older) then by the time they start school then they will know...

• which way up books go.
  
• which is the front.
  
• that we turn the page from right to left.
• that books have text that we can decipher.
• that books have meaning.
• that the pictures relate to the text.

And that's just the minimum... I'd be willing to bet money that if you really do read to your child most days from a very young age then they will already have some words that they can read and some stories that they love and know off by heart... this is reading... and having this knowledge is a great way to start school.

There are two things that make Will pant with excitement... one quenches his thirst and the other quenches his thirst for learning and that is him, me, and a big pile of stories.... more tomorrow.