The Napping House by Audrey Wood
This classic has been republished as a larger format boardbook and after reading it twice at the bookstore I purchased it. I love it. Ezri asked for it to read AGAIN as soon as I finished. I hope it becomes an after nap favorite. For those unfamiliar, this is about a granny napping who is napped upon by a child who is napped upon by a dog who is napped upon by a cat who is napped upon by a mouse and everything is fine until the wakeful flea brings the pile of nappers crashing out of bed. The gentleness of the napping house and the excitement of the waking up resonate with Ezri who is into things being sleepy and aware.
The Dog House by Jan Thomas
When a ball rolls into the dark dog house, animal after animal goes inside to retrieve it and does not return. When only mouse is left outside the dog house, Dog pops out and says he is having duck for dinner. DUCK FOR DINNER! yells mouse. Luckily, he has made turnips for duck and mouse joins the bunch in the dog house for cake. I am not sure how much of the plot Ezri really gets, but she knows its funny and likes the page where pig is called stinky and the one where duck quacks ALOT. Jan Thomas is a new favorite author for me (and Ezri too). The books have plot and humor, but are short enough to fit in toddler attention spans.
Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
Again I am not sure how much of the humor Ezri gets, but she is loving the Big Red Dog. Clifford goes out chasing cars and catches them. He plays fetch and returns with a policeman being dragged by his baton. He tries to hide for hide and seek, but is much too big to hide even behind a house. Though these concepts may not quite be grasped by my kid, she asks for this book again and again and sits through the whole reading.
What’s Wrong Little Pookie? by Sandra Boynton
Boynton is just the best for the toddler aged. Her humor and likable cartoon animals cannot be beat. The zaniness adds to repeat readability for the big people how will be asked for repeat readings. I think Ezri does identify with little Pookie who is crying at the beginning of this book but too upset to tell his caregiver what is wrong. So, she decides to guess and after each guess Pookie responds in a very small voice, “No.” The guesses start out within the realm of reason maybe Pookie is tired or hungry. They end in silliness with wondering whether Pookie’s shoes have been borrowed by a hippopotamus or if his cookies were taken by tiny-winged elephants. Pookie says in his tiny voice, “That’s silly.” By the end he’s forgotten what he was upset about. The story is a very loving interaction and very familiar to a toddler. I am working on a current top ten list of Ezri’s favorite stories and this one almost certainly makes that cut.
Ezri has also discovered the marvel of pockets. Here she’s put a dandylion in her pocket. Usually she puts the pom-poms I keep especially for the purpose in her pockets. She also likes to put in acorns (yes, it’s fall) and rocks. She almost got me to buy her a small stuffed owl by picking it up and saying, “Pocket owl!” and shoving it in. The I realized we have plenty of small stuffed animals for the purpose already – no need to purchase another.
Yesterday Eric transitioned Ezri’s crib into a big kid bed by removing one side. The results are mixed. She definitely is excited by the bed and the opportunity to escape her sleep space on her own. Too excited to sleep it seems. She spent part of last night sleeping on blankets on the floor near her bed. We’ll see how it goes tonight.
We’ve created a book monster!
Now that she can ask for books by name, she’s learned the age old bedtime prolonging ploy of demanding another story.
As Eric is trying to put Ezri down to bed, I hear “Teeth” and out comes Eric to find My Teeth by the Milestones Project.
Later I hear, “Pookie” and out comes Eric to find the book What’s Wrong Little Pookie? by Boynton.
Ezri can ask for story after story and that doesn’t even count the times she says, “again,” as a given story concludes.
Here are a couple we’ve enjoyed this week:
Puppies, Pussycats and Other Friends by Gyo Fujikawa
This is a board book reprint of a children’s book from 1975. The very cute illustration are almost cute overload, but in a style I enjoy – Japanese retro 70s sweet so they worked for me. There isn’t a story here just illustrations of children with various animals with simple descriptive text – “Some animal friends are very small like fishes and frogs.” Ezri really enjoyed the page with children climbing on an enormous elephant. She also responded to the silliness of the line of seven children each with a different small animal on his or her head – squirrel, gerbil, parakeet, hamster, and so on. She also now tries to read to the cats. She wanted to find and show Sushi (our cat) the page with Mrs. Cat and her kittens.
Sesame Street strikes again! Baby Play by The Sesame Street Workshop
This board book consists of 5 two page spreads each with a photograph of a baby and Sesame St. puppets interacting in an activity.
Two monsters play music with a baby beating a drum. The book invites the reader to “Pat-pat-pat on the pages of this book.” Ezri knows this is the page we pat and make honking noises on. Ezri is down with that. The next page features Grover and a baby trying on hats. Elmos tickles a baby on the page and Ezri will tickle me when we read this page. Ernie is giving a bath to a baby on the next page. Ezri points at the towel, bubbles, and duck and says these words as they are all familiar to her. She points out that the baby is “wet.” The book invites the reader to point at the bubbles and say, “pop.” This is also a game Ezri enjoys. The last page is a baby helping Big Bird get ready for naptime. The reader is invited to sing Big BIrd a lullaby. Ezri likes to sing “twinkle twinkle little star” and point out how Big BIrd is “sleepy.” So the invitation to interact along with the likable puppets and photos of babies make this one a repeated read for us. There are so many words Ezri knows and can say associated with the title which adds enjoyment for both of us.
More books Ezri can now ask for by name (or her name for the book at least):
“Fox in Socks” which is the Dr. Seuss Classic
“Sleepy” which is Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
“BEDTIME!” which is Ten Minutes Till Bedtime by Peggy Rathman
“Teeth” which is My Teeth from Tricycle Press
“Kiss kiss” which refers to one of several books featuring kissing including Pajama Mamas by Spohn, Counting Kisses by Katz, and Kiss Goodnight by Amy Hess.
“Uh-oh” which refers to any of the Diaper David books by Daivd Shannon.
“Elmo wet” which refers to It’s Not Easy Being Big! by Stephanie St. Pierre
I’ll start with a couple books that Ezri is drawn to that I am not sure would be as especially appreciated by her peers. It’s Not Easy Being Big! by Stephanie St. Pierre
This book is about when it’s hard for Sesame Street’s Big Bird to be big like when he’s too big to ride a tricycle or too big to hide in a game of hide and seek. Then the book switches to Elmo and talks about when it’s hard to be small.
This is where Ezri’s favorite page occurs. Elmo is “too small to cross” and falls in a puddle.
Ezri noticed that Elmo sitting in the puddle was wet. It’s not in the text that he’s wet nor did I tell her. I think the fact that she made this independent conclusion and is also fascinated with wetness make this page such a draw for her.
She will listen to the whole book, but I know she is just waiting to say, “Elmo wet!”
Babybug the March 2010 Issue
I think this magazine would be great for any toddler, but this issue being superlative may just be my kid.
Babybug magazine is generally a hit. There is a regular feature written Kim and Carrots written by Clara Vulliamy about a 2 year old girl named Kim and her daily activities with her stuffed rabbit, Carrots. After reading Kim’s story, Ezri dug through her toys to find her stuffed rabbit. While Ezri enjoys all her Babybug magazines, she LOVES the March 2010 issue which has a rhyme called Yawns by Pamela Love. We first read this to her on our vacation in Montana and it made an impression there last month. It was helped along by the fact that her grandparents and parents all made yawning noises for her. The rhyme goes like this, ” A hippo has a giant yawn. A ladybug’s is teeny. Little girls and boys have yawns that are in-betweeny.” We make the yawn noises together and it is inexplicably awesome to Ezri. Eric and I don’t need the book for this one when it is requested we have memorized it. I don’t know if it’s the memory of reading this on vacation or the joy of yawning or the fact that she likes to try to say the word “girl.” The other favorite part of this issue is High Five by Lucy Ford about a kid with small hands and a daddy with big hands doing a high five. This means now if you give Ezri a high five she will then ask for dada to give her one, even if dada is at the office. Dads clearly give the best high fives.
These are a couple hits that I think have strong general appeal for the younger toddler. Global Babies by the Global Fund for Children
This one was given to Ezri by her doctor as part of a program to get young kids books during their required doctor visits called Reach out and Read. The text is very simple saying that whatever babies do and wherever they are, they are special and they are loved. The book is filled with close up photos of babies from different parts of the world and there is also small text on each page letting you know where the photo was taken. Ezri likes to point out which babies are sleepy. Being sleepy and being awake are big concepts for her right now. When you get to the page of the baby who is from Bhutan, Ezri will point at it and loudly say, “futon!” She says, “Rock!” on the page of the baby from Iraq.
My Teeth by Tricycle Press and the Milestone Project
This is another board book of photos of babies from diverse nations. It is also a counting book. First there is a baby with no teeth and then 1 tooth, 2 teeth, and on up to 10 teeth. These counting pages are followed by a photo of a toddler with an ear of corn and the text, “Bite!” The last page shows a toddler brushing with the text, “Let’s brush!” Ezri loves to point at the teeth on each page and even does a bit of counting (though not always sequentially correctly – she often skips the number 9 because of the verse in a favorite song that counts to 10 skipping 9 because 7 ate 9).
Rookie Toddler Series from Children’s Press an imprint of Scholastic
We have checked out three Rookie Toddler titles from the library and all three have been appreciated by Ezri. Everywhere a Moo, Moo is a shortened version of Old MacDonald had a farm tailored to shorter attention spans with photos of barnyard animals. Will You Wear a BLUE Hat? is a book about getting dressed and picking out clothing that is sung to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress.
Those first two had the great appeal of being sung. I think we may seek more books with a tune. The third one did not have a tune, but was equally appreciated. Hide-and-Peek shows a stuffed bear and a stuffed rabbit being over, on, under, in front of, behind and in a box. Ezri and I have duplicated scenes from the book with our own stuffed animals and box. In addition to learning prepositions this seems to fascinate her and I always appreciate a new toddler game.
This is a longer video of Ezri and I reading Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep! by Mo Willems.
She is really enjoying the Cat the Cat series by Willems. Also, look at how good she is at gently turning pages of a book. She is graduating from board books.
She has started to explore books more independently. She flips through and makes comments on what she sees or repeats phrases we’ve read. As her vocabulary explodes, she begins to ask for her favorites by name – even ones we haven’t read in weeks which blows my mind. Proof that if you read to your baby early, they are listening even when it doesn’t seem like it. Just this week we discovered she can say, “Knuffle Bunny” for the book of the same title and “Clifford” for Clifford the Big Red Dog by Bridwell. She was already asking for ‘Sally” for Silly Sally by Wood and “Fingers” for Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and “Bubbles” for Bubbles, Bubbles (Sesame Street Beginnings) among others.
A surprise hit last week was the book Pajama Mamas by Kate Spohn which Ezri is reading in the photo above. Each spread has an illustration of a mama in her pajamas and then a flap opens to show her baby. One mama strums the guitar and the text reads “strum, strum, Mama.” The corresponding flap opens to an illustration of a sleepy baby that reads “hum, hum, baby.” Ezri’s favorite mama is the one that is “Kiss kiss mama” and the flap opens to “Bliss bliss baby.” Ezri will “read” these two pages saying “Kiss kiss mama” and “Buh-liss buh-liss baby.” It is the first time I’ve seen her reading a book passage exactly as written. She adds some kissing noises just as I do when I read the book. She has pointed out that the kissing mama is wearing glasses. I think because I wear glasses she thinks this is what mamas should do. The flaps are big which means Ezri can open them easily herself. She does forget to close them when she goes to the next page which can lead to a book that needs some arranging of its flaps after reading. I think the simple cadence and repetition of this book with its “something, something, mama” and “something, something, baby” is what captured Ezri’s attention. We will be renewing this library book a few more times so it can stay around the house.
Here’s Ezri taking a break from trying to put on her shoes to sing the babies on the bus go “wah wah wah.” Note that her shoes are on the wrong feet. It is very important to her to be able to do things all by herself lately. I wish she had better motor skills and were actually capable of dressing herself. It can take a long time to get out of the house waiting for her to put on her shoes while she refuses all attempts at assistance with an emphatic “NO!”
What Pets Teach Us: Life’s Lessons Learned from our Best Friends by Willow Creek Press
This book features full color photos of various animals from pig to guinea pig coupled with statements like, “Smile! Someone is sure to smile back” or “home is the place that is safe and warm and cozy.” The text is simple and platitude filled, but talking about the photos is a lot of fun. I asked Ezri if the duck looked like it was smiling and she said, “quack, quack, smile.” Also, rabbits wearing sunglasses entrance Ezri. I think she knows animals don’t really do that and so she is trying to figure it out. We may check out some of the other titles in this series: What Horses Teach Us. . . and What Dogs Teach Us. . . I don’t think I’ll be tempted to buy these books for my personal library, but we did enjoy it.
The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson
This book tells us that horses eat hay, chickens eat chicken feed, geese eat corn, pigs eat slop, but the cow loves COOKIES. At the end of the story, the farmer brings cookies and the cow gives milk and the two share a snack. It has farm animals to let Ezri make many a farm animal noise. This book is great. It has a repeated pattern without repeating the exact wording over and over. This means it isn’t too boringly repetitious for the reader, but is perfectly predictable for the young child. It has both cows and cookies which Ezri likes to talk about. Ezri says, “coo-KEY” and “moooooo.” The illustrations by Marcellus Hall have farm animals’ faces filled with expression and the barnyard looking busy and fun. I have added this one to the personal library and shared it successfully with slightly older children (2 – 3 years) to learn it should be appreciated for a year or two.
Goodnight Goodnight, Sleepyhead by Ruth Krauss illustrated by Jane Dyer
This a great goodnight book for Ezri’s age (1.5 years). In the style of Goodnight Moon, the text of the book says goodnight to things – in this case each bodypart and then goodnight to each part of the bedroom. The text is very simple. Here is most of it: “Goodnight eyes, Goodnight nose, Goodnight fingers, Goodnight toes, Goodnight lips, Goodnight hair, Goodnight Goodnight everywhere, Goodnight windows, Goodnight doors, Goodnight walls, Goodnight floors, Goodnight chairs, Goodnight bed, Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead.” Each phrase gets a full page and often a two page spread. So, the reading of the book moves slowly and gently as a goodnight book should. The illustrator has highlighted a toy that the child is saying goodnight to for each body part – like a teddy bear’s nose, a stuffed lion’s hairy mane and doll’s fingers. The toys are then shown all tucked into bed. After each part of the room has been said goodnight to, the illustration shows a mama kissing her sleepyhead goodnight and a final illustration of the whole room sleeping.
This would be a good gift for a new parent. At our house, Eric is the one who does bedtime – so it is a little disappointing to me that there is no dad in the illustrations of this very nice bedtime book.
It would probably be better to ask the master of the bedtime story, Eric, what Ezri is reading. However, we read a lot during the day too.
Before naptime today we read: Silly Sally by Audrey Wood. This one was by special request. Ezri pointed at her pile of books and said, “Sally.” Ezri favorite pages seem to be the ones where all the animals are tickled awake. Even at Ezri’s age, she seems to understand how silly it is to go to town “walking backwards, upside down.” The repeated phrase “Silly Sally went to town, [walk, dance, leap, sing]ing backwards, upside down” rolls off the tongue and makes a great read aloud.
What’s Your Sound HOUND the HOUND? by Mo Willems Ezri says something like, “How the how.” But she is great at woofing for Hound the Hound’s sound. She particularly likes the page with the cow and the very long, “Mmmmmoooooooo!” The story ends with a group hug which Ezri’s recognizes. It is short enough for repeated readings. I was asked twice to read this one, “ah-Gen!”
Say Moo! by Libby Ellis
This slight book of farm animals is fun for playing identify the animal and make its noise.
Counting Kisses by Karen Katz
Different family members kiss the baby on different body parts. I admit I ignore the countdown aspect of this book. The mama gives “ten little kisses on teeny tiny toes” and “nine laughing kisses on busy, wriggly feet,” I edit this down to one kiss per body part when reading because then I am up to the challenge of giving Ezri the kisses just like the baby in the book. She likes to point out the cat in the illustrations and the grandma who is wearing glasses – which, given her family, Ezri is sure is appropriate for grandmas to do.
We ended our pre-nap reading with Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, a perennial favorite especially at sleepy times.
Today Ezri particularly enjoyed reading Crunch Munch by Jonathan London. There is an animal eating on each page with text that describes how that animal sounds while they eat. “How does a cow eat? Moo-o-o-o chew, moo-o-o-o chew.” The illustrations by Michael Rex are big and the animals were easy to identify. Ezri enjoyed the noises from the “sluuurp- GULP” of the aardvark using his sticky tongue to snag ants to the “RIP-scrunch” of the giraffe pulling leaves from a tree. Noisy, chewing, animal fun.
She also enjoyed Does a Cow Say Boo? by Judy Hindley
Children run all over the barnyard looking at various animals for one that says BOO! They see birds that tweet and hens that cluck. They spend a very nice spread looking at bugs, worms, and snails in the grass. Here the text points out, “some little creatures say nothing at all.” The penultimate page shows the group of the children hiding their eyes. “What do you say now?” On the final page, all the children have uncovered their eyes to say, “Boo!” The children have discovered who says boo. Ezri had me do these last two pages over & over.
So, we found two books that Ezri sat all the way through more than once. That’s like a two thumbs up review from someone whose attention span is only about a year and a half old.
Before naptime we were reading the book Oops! by David Shannon.
The last page has the word “Mama” on it and shows David asleep against his mother’s chest in her arms. When we got to that page, Ezri looked at the illustration and said, “Mama!” and gave me a big hug just like David.
Good thing she doesn’t know this sort of behavior makes me want to give her anything she’d like – even cookies.
Ezri likes to identify the parts of her body.
One of her favorite new words is fingers.
Her favorite games include “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and “This Little Piggy.”
So, it isn’t any wonder that the following books were hits with her.
A First Book All About You: Eyes, Nose, Fingers and Toes by Judy Hindley
The book explains the uses of different body parts. “Legs are for kicking.” “Feet are for STOMPING and suddenly – STOPPING!”
“Hands are to hold and pat and CLAP!” You get the idea. The accompanying illustrations by Brita Granstrom have enough detail to be interesting without so much detail that Ezri is overwhelmed. You will have to move and clap while reading the text, but that’s much of the fun.
My First Body Board Book by DK
This title begins with photos of babies with body parts labeled. Then there is a spread of different babies’ faces and another with different babies’ hair. There are pages with babies exploring using their sense. Ezri’s favorite is a baby tasting a cookie. She has now tasted cookies and likes to say, “cookie.” There is a page with photos of baby clothing to point at and identify. This is all around a good title to browse and talk about together.
Look at You! A Baby Body Book by Kathy Henderson was an early favorite of Ezri’s and is now back after a break as a fun book to look through. I discussed it first in this post.
Where is Baby? by Sally Rippin
There’s not much to this board book in the text. Each spread asks the question, “Where is the baby?” and then answers it. Babies are on chairs, in toy trains, playing games, and snuggled in bed. The joy of this book for Ezri is the illustrations which are simple, brightly colored paintings. There is a cockatiel who Ezri calls “twee twee.” This is her noise for bird, but has also been applied to bats and butterflies. The baby in the pictures has a ball and a teddy bear both words Ezri can say. When we turn to the train page, Ezri smiles and says, “choo choo.” This book is a perfect book to talk about and ask Ezri to talk to me about. On one page there is a baby who is under a blanket. Since Ezri loves blanket peekaboo, she also loves pointing at this illustration. It’s nice that this book is so slight on the text that we can actually read through the whole thing in the length of Ezri’s attention span.
