What is Ezri reading?

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.