What is Ezri Reading?

Tilly and Friends series of picture books by Polly Dunbar
These slight tales of 6 friends (one little girl and five animals) who all live together in a yellow house have plots that seem to flit from one game to another in the way a toddler might. To Ezri it makes perfect sense to have a tale that begins with making music while doing a dance called the wiggly woo, then has a feast, followed by a post-feast pretty prance parade, then a post-parade elephant ride and ends with friends sharing a book until Tiptoe, the rabbit, falls asleep. The illustrations are charming. The animal friends have distinct personalities from earnest Tumpty, the elephant, to fanciful Pru, the chicken. There are six books in the series which begins with Hello, Tilly and includes a tale for each of the six friends who live in the little yellow house. So far, Ezri and I have enjoyed Hello, Tilly (described above) and Where’s Tumpty? (about an elephant who really wants to be good at hiding despite his size). Hello, Tilly has red endpapers with polka dots. Ezri loves the polka dot endpapers. She can count the polka dots up to 8 dots (there are dozens of them, but she only gets the first eight). I think we will be spending more time with Tilly and her friends.

Wild Animal Baby magazine from the National Wildlife Fund
This has been a big hit particularly because 5 small pictures of a red, overall-wearing skunk named Sammy hide in each issue. Ezri loves finding the pictures of Sammy as we read. She also likes describing what Sammy is doing as he is in different poses throughout. “Sammy dancing.” “Sammy sit.” “Sammy sleepy.” The magazine has brief articles about wildlife with photos and also features like find this animal at the park that asks the reader to point to the chipmunk, duck and so on. This is the first find it game that has fascinated Ezri and we are considering a subscription to Wild Animal Baby.

In other news, Ezri is enjoying having her own rake with which to move fall leaves. She doesn’t understand making a pile yet, but moving leaves around with a rake – she is on it!