What is Ezri Reading?

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.