DOG

 

DOG by Matthew Van Fleet is, hands down, my favorite tab/flap/texture book for babies.   Each of my three children has gotten a new copy, not because it isn't sturdy (it is), but because it has gotten WAY more than its fair share of loving! 

The fuzzy tails and ears and sticky tongue are legitimately fun to touch, the pull-tabs are easy to manipulate for small hands, and the moving tails and legs are sturdy.   There are between 7-15 words per page spread- a good mix of early vocab (dog, big, little, shake, ears, etc) with more advanced words (quake, floppy, howl, etc)  to keep babies interested. The pictures are clear and varied, the rhyme flows well and has humor! It is everything a great baby book should be! My three kids have all adored this book.

Matthew Van Fleet has a few other, similar books- CAT and MOO.  Which also seem excellent.  Our family has had dogs, so our babies have been more enamored of DOG than the others!

Journey, Quest, Return

It took me a while to warm up to the idea of wordless books.  Mostly because of laziness.  At the end of a day filled with endless questions and drama, I simply have no energy for inventing my own bedtime story.  I count on the words on those pages to guide me through that home-stretch until lights out time.  BUT I saw a preview of the book Journey by Aaron Becker when it won the Caldecott, and I was entranced.  The pictures are simply stunning.  I could live in this book.  I immediately bought a copy for our then 2 and 4 year olds.  They loved it too.  It is simply too beautiful not to love. 


And I came to realize the genius of these books is not in the parent telling the story- it is the child discovering the story.  I really really try to only ask questions when we "read" this book.  (But I cannot help oohing and aahing here and there too)  The kids eyes light up when they discover the plot and I love watching them page back and say "Wait, was that on the last page?" They truly enter the book in a way they don't when I am reading to them. 

So when I stumbled across Quest and Return, the sequels to Journey at the library yesterday I actually squealed with delight! My 2nd grader was so excited when he saw them after school, he chose to read them before playing minecraft.  Quite an endorsement! 

Titles: Journey
           Quest
           Return

Author: Aaron Becker

Ages: While our 18 month old is taken with the pictures, and our 2 year old enjoyed them,  I think the target ages are 3-10.  By 3 they can really discover the story on their own, which is such a beautiful process!

Summary: The book opens with a girl trying to get her family to play with her- but they are busy.  She finds a red crayon and draws a door that opens like a portal to a beautiful, magical world.  The plot builds through each of the books as she uses her magic crayon to escape and rescue friends.  Along the way she meets a boy who also enters the world, a king, and ends up building a relationship with her father.  The story is empowering and full of imagination, magic, heroism, and beauty.  

books!

Zoë has just recently become interested in books!!  Ever since she has been able to grasp things and pull them to her mouth she has been interested in them as chew-toys.  But in the last week or so she has started staring with intense interest at the pages- the colors and faces in particular- and then tries to pull the objects off of the page and into her mouth instead of just gnawing on the page whole.  I am so excited!  Reading to Jonathan has been one of my favorite things over the past few years- and I am so excited to be reading with Zoë now too!

I love the way that a book can capture his imagination and permeate everything we do and talk about.  Sure we read the same books time and time again, but he is just as engaged every time and those places and characters and themes become part of his little world.  So I try to choose the titles that populate our book bins carefully- both because I know each title will be with us for a while and because I want to fill their worlds with stories that introduce them to a world that is full of wonder and laughter and love.  So with that said, here are a few of our latest favorites...

Since Zoë is at a stage where she studies faces and colors like crazy, we mostly read these two:

1) Peek-a-boo Baby by Margaret Miller. She has a whole line of baby faces books, and this is the one we have.  Bright colors and simple words on one page; close up baby faces playing peek-a-boo on the other.  Simple and perfect for her.

2)  While you were sleeping by John Butler.  A counting book with super cuddly animals going about their business "while you were sleeping".  The illustrations are great; the words are simple, but engaging and poetic.  When I pulled it out of the baby bin for the first time in about 18 months, Jonathan could recite all of the words on each page and he always wants to cuddle up and read with us when I pull this one out for Zoë.


Jonathan is starting to really love simple plot-lines and these have great art too!

Augustus and his Smile by Catherine Rayner.  We picked this one up at the library, but then I had to buy it because 2 weeks just wasn't enough for any of us.  The artwork is magical and the story about a tiger who is searching for his smile is just sweet.  

I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan.  He's a two year old boy, so garbage trucks are the most interesting thing on the face of the earth.  I put this one in his Christmas stocking and I think we've read it every night since then.  It follows a garbage truck on his rounds, gives us the alphabet in trash, and has ample crashing and crushing and banging.