These
are some of the books my little ones regularly ask for or talk about.
Disclaimer: These books are on nearly all the recommended book lists.
We received this board book as a gift, and it has been a
favorite from the start. It has no plot, merely brightly colored photos
highlighting a common color. However, it has provoked much conversation, first
about the objects and now the colors themselves.
Speaking of Felicia Bond, my kids also
love this series. Their favorites are If You Give a Pig a Party (it has
balloons and lots of animal friends) and If You Take a Mouse to School. Judah
loves the latter, although I have my suspicions that the book’s fascination lies
in the built up anticipation of the page near the end with a basketball on one
side and a soccer ball on the other. Sometimes he loses interest after that
page and always asks to go back to it.
Both kids beg to read about this little teddy bear. They love the scenes where the bear is sleeping,
watch carefully for the little girl, and jabber about Corduroy’s pocket. Each
book ends with a scene of affection between the girl and her bear, which of
course we have to imitate each time. The “nuzzle noses” scene at the end of “A
Pocket for Corduroy” has become a new and frequent form of affection in our
home.
They seem to enjoy each of the Dr. Seuss books we have,
although the longer “Horton Hears a Who” usually requires two sittings. By far
their favorite, however, is Hop on Pop (with second place belonging to Fox in Socks, possibly because they sense the readers’ preference for the silly tongue
twisting book). They love the Ball Wall sequence and the Mr. Brown picnic
adventures.
As a side note, reading Dr. Seuss (or really any of these books,
I’m afraid) has resulted in memorizing Dr. Seuss, and he comes up in our daily
life quite frequently. The kids’ phone play often initiates a recitation of
“Hello? Hello? I called you up to say hello. I said hello. Can you hear me,
Joe?”, blocks turn into “A Quick Trick Block Stack,” and I don’t care to admit
how often we quote “Luke Luck Likes Lakes” or “Let’s have a Little Talk about
Tweetle Beetles.” I just hope “Jabberwocky” and “Cabbages and Kings” get as
much attention in five years.
This peddler taught our kids one of their first
animal sounds, and they are probably the only kids around who say, “tsz, tsz”
for monkeys while shaking their finger instead of “ooh, ooh” while scratching
their armpits. When we went to the zoo, Little Girl walked around the monkey
house shaking her finger and declaring, “tsz, tsz.” I had to pull her back to
the path several times, she was so excited. Judah came alive when his idea to
put two caps on his head spurred a mini-reenactment and recitation of the book
in the back yard. They’re still sometimes convinced our tree has monkeys in it.
It has been delightful to watch their pretend play develop, although, truth be
told, I am the one doing most of the acting and quoting for this game so far.
They just watch and enjoy.
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