This is the Way

Author and Illustrator: Charles Fuge
Publisher: Gullane Children's Books, 2008. Featured board book edition, 2009.

Here's a fun board book that has really encouraged early language development in my children. This is the Way is simple action-noise book, very repetitive and very catchy. It's about a little boy (or girl, I can't quite tell...it's the 70s bowl cut hairstyle that's confusing) who follows behind various animals, copying the way they move with an action and sound. 
Some of the creatures the boy follows are slightly a-typical (for this sort of animal rhyme book), so a dinosaur and anteater for example, and the onomatopoeic noises they make are also a little uncouth (the dinosaur doesn't roar as one might expect, but he stalks and says 'snarl, hiss, gnash!')
I've found in the past that the flow of the rhyme works so much better in this book if you repeat the action-noise twice:
'This is the way the orangutan swings, Ooh,Ooh,Ooh! / adding - Ooh, Ooh, Ooh!' / And this is the way the tawny owl sings, T'wit, T'wit, T'woo!,/ adding -T'wit, T'wit, T'woo!'
: as my children tend to join in with the noise on the second repetition each time. 

At first the illustrations in the book put me off, particularly the boy/girl in corduroy trousers with big blue eyes as he looks very dated, but actually now I really like this about the book; the illustrations feel retro and quirky. 

Both the children and I like that this very short board book has a real ending, a 'reveal' nonetheless, as on the last page the boy is fast asleep in his bedroom surrounded by inspiration for his imaginative creature reenactments; his cuddly toy is the tree-frog he meets, he has a bumble bee poster by his bed, his book is open on the anteater page. Most of my children have come to this realisation at about 2 years of age, and it brings them a real sense of satisfaction, making this connection.  

The book is perfectly pitched at the 1-18 month audience, but equally suitable (and more engaging maybe) with the 18 month-2.5 year age range. I distinctly remember Bert reciting the whole book at about 2 years old, making all the lovely animal noises, but we're a long way off that recall with George currently (20 months). 

The book really invites joining in, making noise, imitation, and performance. It uses a 'follow the leader' scenario that even young children will be familiar with,  and promotes a sense of parallel play, with the boy moving alongside the creatures; this again is very age appropriate for the toddler audience. In all, an excellent and highly recommended toddler board book. 

If you like this you might also like: Hug by Jez Alborough

Hug

Author and Illustrator: Jez Alborough
Publisher: Walker Books, 2000, featured edition 2001

Hug has a place on our nurseryroom bookshelf, it might not be for every child though. It's a bright, funny, emotion rich book, containing one simple word, and one simple message - 'hug'! Actually the message is a little more flowery than that- everyone needs a hug, everyone wants a hug, the best hugs are from mums...we can hug to say thanks, group hugs mean celebration. Why not for 'every child' then? Well, because some children feel uncomfortable being hugged and that's ok. For us, the book was very useful as a way of inviting a hug with our newly placed adopted child, but it took a long time for a hug to be 'comfortable' or even sought (baby monkey Bobo is searching for a hug in the book). Bobo
eventually finds his hug, running into the arms of 'mummy' (it's a shame the parent was specified but then 'mummy' is quite an ambiguous term for 'loved one' to a toddler, at least it's a pretty transferable term in our house at the moment, 'mummy' being generic for mum, dad, siblings, anyone else, with our toddler).

The book relies on an enthusiastic adult reader making the most of their abilities in drama or performing arts to fully engage. If the adult is prepared to act like a crazed mime artist the children look on in bewilderment and enjoyment and soon ask for the book again (as with most comedic displays I suppose!) 

As for 'emotion rich', the book is clever and useful here; initially baby Bobo spots elephants hugging and looks interested, he then admires hugging chameleons, moving on to snakes, and finally he starts to look puzzled (where is his hug?). Wordlessly the other jungle animals gather round and look concerned for sad lonely looking Bobo. The elephant and her calf 

then help Bobo search for his hug/mum, and he increasingly looks on in jealousy, distress, 

panic as he fails to find his 'hug', watching a lion family hug, giraffes embrace, hippos snuggle. Bobo screams 'HUG' in despair as all the other animal gather and gasp. He sits on a rock and sobs. His crying is heard by his mummy, who shouts for him in delight. They embrace, surrounded by a rapturous applause from all the other animals. Bobo thanks the elephants for their help (with a hug), the animals celebrate by hugging. And all of that exposition is told through illustrations and one word alone, so it's very very clever! 

To reiterate though, sharing a hug, building this intimacy is not a given with all children, even toddlers, and it's good to respect this (so for example some children, but not all, with ASD and RAD). Yet Hug could be very useful with this group, especially as a means of talking through emotions, and discussing why the monkey searches for a hug. Before purchasing for a SEN or LAC library though, be aware that one of my children interpreted the monkey as 'lost' (thankfully not abandoned), and worried the monkey wasn't loved. This is a very simple, innocent, sweet, useful book, but it can pack a big punch. 

Freight Train

Author and Illustrator: Donald Crews
Publisher: Sandy Creek 1978, featured edition HarperCollins Greenwillow Books, 2010

This is the dream book of my 18 month old, George. It's a big, chunky-sized board book, tick; it's about trains, tick; a big long steam freight train, double tick; there are very few words, tick; and it really improves if the adult reading the book adds their own train noises, smiley-faced tick.

For me, this book isn't a patch on another preschooler train book I recommended,
Rattle and Rap, but it remains a staple of our weekly reads as it's so popular with George at present. From experience, my three older children had tended to have outgrown this book by 2-2.5 years, but they currently enjoy reading it to George, and do better train noises 'going through tunnels' than I could ever do. 

The 'story' (and I use that term loosely as there is no real story) is about a train's journey along a track. Elements of the written word rhyme, so for example: 'A train runs across this track. Red caboose at the back' , but mainly the written element of the book is very understated, single words on some pages, 'gone.' As such, the book is strangely eerie, it uses silence in an interesting capacity: there are long pauses as the eyes are drawn to the trails of monochromatic steam left behind by the 'Freight train. Moving.' 

Very young children love going through the colour wheel of carriages in this book: 'green cattle car, Blue gondola, car, Purple box car,' (it becomes so repetitious for adults - and what's a gondola and caboose' anyway?! ). The illustrations are sleek and stylised, they capture a sense of movement and speed nicely, and the black and primary colour palette obviously hugely appeal ( are visible to) even the youngest of babies and toddlers. 

The book needs to be read aloud (well) and sound effects added for maximum impact. The cut-through on the train-in-tunnel page is really effective if you make a whooshing noise and stop as the bank returns, whooshing again as the train reappears. Again, this is all an exercise in playing with noise and silence; quite interesting for a children's book, captivating for young children going through the 'permanence' stage. 

In all, this is a clever, stylish book, but the long silences, simplistic block pictures are just so unfamiliar, so unconventional against today's children's literature market, you can't help feeling a little undersold. My 18 month old overrules me though, he votes with his feet, and this is usually the first book turfed off the shelf and placed in my lap. Whoosh! 

Here's a link to some Frieght Train inspired activities to support reading: 
HomeGrownFriends Freight Train Activities

Dear Zoo

Author and Illustrator: Rod Campbell
Publisher: Campbell Books, first published 1982 by Abelard-Schuman Ltd

Tonight it's the turn of famous toddler board book 'Dear Zoo'. Simple, repetitive and formulaic, so perfect for babies and toddlers. A letter to the zoo returns eight surprise animals hidden in crates, boxes and baskets. The receiver is fussy and sends the animals back one-by-one based on their common characteristic, so, the camel was grumpy, the frog was jumpy and the dog? The puppy is perfect so the receiver keeps him. 

This is about as straightforward as a flap-book for toddlers gets, with pretty much the same sentence on every page ( about writing to the zoo) and then an opportunity to sneak a peak under the flap to understand the big reveal. Adjectives used are appropriate and characterise the animal hidden well. Our children provide their own sound effects for certain adjectives so 'grumpy' is accompanied by a huff, or for certain animals, so 'lion' is followed by a roar. For toddlers this is great as it invites joining in. I'm not sure that all families would agree that a puppy is 'perfect' though, especially one eating furniture or weeing where it shouldn't. 

Here's a slightly stern reading from the Book Trust:  A reading of Dear Zoo

Island Counting 123

Author and Illustrator: Frane Lessac 
Publisher: Walker Books, 2005

Now here's a thing- a toddler book written with a West Indian accent. Set on 'One little island in the Caribbean Sea' this little gem of board book counts (from 1-10) based on aspects of island life, including 'nine limbo dancers swaying in a line', 'three painted houses sitting high on a hill' and 'five market ladies wearing shady hats'. Using syllabic verse on a beat of 1,2,2,2,2,1 the book is a whistle stop tour of bright, breezy gouache illustrations. I especially like this page...

...as it presents a very cheery, if stereotypical, depiction of The Caribbean (see also 'six cricket players waiting with their bats'). With colourful bunting, streamers and lanterns on most pages, the book builds up to number ten 'Carnival time!' before counting back up to 10 again and ending.  It's a loud, fun toddler book, more of a midday wake-up read than a bedtime, calm-down read. This book is also a really nice way to start introducing a different culture, or what life is like in another country to young children (we're based in the UK, apologises if reading from 'one little Island in the Carribean sea'). 

If you like this you might also like: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Each Peach Pear Plum

Author:Allan Ahlberg
Illustrator: Janet Alhberg
Publisher: Puffin Books 1978, board book edition 1999

I'm surprised it's taken me until mid January to review an Ahlberg book, as their many books are staples of our book shelves and classics of British children's literature. 

Each Peach Pear Plum is a fantastic rhyming 'I-spy' book, inviting small children to spot well-known nursery rhyme and fairytale characters such as The Three Bears and Bo-Peep. 
The Ahlbergs use intertextuality again in the Postman and other People's Letters books; referencing characters that young children are likely to know, playing in their inherent familiarity and knowledge, helps them feel like empowered readers,  it's a technique I've  noticed used a great deal in British children's early readers fiction. 

Each Peach Pear Plum in board book edition is particularly engaging for the 18month-2 1/2 year old age range, tough and durable for all the poking and pointing of podgy little hands. The story / game itself, to spot the arm or legs or distant figure of the next character, is fun and invites action, and the scanning of the illustrations. The illustrations are very 'busy' and detailed, there's much to see, sometimes a little too much as on first read the clues are very hard to spot, but then the child gets a real sense of satisfaction from remembering the exact spot to point amongst all the busyness. 

In terms of the nursery rhymes inside the rhyme, again this is clever as it makes associations and so is easier for children to remember and recite. With rhyming couplets and use of alliteration the book is very catchy, 'Wicked Witch over the Wood' 
and I find myself repeating the verse over and over in my sleep. I also like the ending, bringing the rhyme to a happy conclusion, in that 'plum pie in the sun' unites so many disparate story characters together on one picnic blanket, from Tom Thumb to Robin Hood, Baby Bunting to The Wicked Witch. I never tire of reading this beautiful rhyme. It has iconic status in modern British children's literature, and rightfully so. 

One Lonely Fish

Concept and Design: Andy Mansfield
Illustrations: Thomas Flintham
Publisher: Templar Publishing, 2016

The full title of this book is: One Lonely Fish: A counting book with bite. It's one of my current favourite books for toddlers, and works especially well for those approaching or a few months following the age of 1, with a very straightforward concept (count-the-fish) and pages that can be easily turned by small hands.  

Counting gradually up from 1-10, on each page the landscape length on the book gains a new colourful fish, with its jaws wide open, enough to swallow up the fish ahead. This forms a neat queue (or chasing line) of fish until one giant fish eats the lot (broad smile on his face). Snap! The end. 

Following on from reading (though it feels more like playing with this book, rather than reading it), we've used the book to discuss why fish number ten might be lonely, and with older children, you might even get a chat about the food chain out of this this title. 
In terms of age range though, this is an exceptionally toddler-friendly book, as the pages are easy to turn with inverted triangle card cut-aways on each page for added 'turn-ability', and the pages are made of tough thick cardboard. It's a big robust book (a bit too big for standard bookshelves actually, so do think about finding accommodation for it elsewhere in a nursery bedroom). The fish illustrations are bright, predominately in primary colours, and the big jaws perspective on the final fish is playful. My three year old loves 'reading' this to her younger brother, and spotting the red crab on each page too. There's extra fun to be had if children dare put their own hand in the fish's mouth, and it bites shut. Lots of squeals of delight in my house from this book in that biting-hand off respect. 

One Lonely Fish feels a little like a hybrid between to Rob Campbell's 1996 Fishy Things and Rod Campbell's 2005 Touch and Feel I won't Bite. If you like both these titles you'll love One Lonely Fish too. 

And if you enjoy counting books with toddlers I also recommend this video of the band Feist singing 'counting to 4' on Sesame Street, uploaded to YouTube in 2008. My children love this rendition, but be warned, it's very catchy: Feist: Counting to Four video

Goodnight Moon

Author: Margaret Wise Brown

Illustrator: Clement Hurd
Publisher: Originally published in 1947, reprinted in 2012 Macmillian Children's Books

Goodnight Moon is heralded as a classic of North American children's literature. I became familiar with the book from a language blog I read many years ago, in which the poem had been translated into Polish. Having not initially read the poem in English, it made so much more 'sense' in the English translation and I grew to love it (and yet this poem makes very little 'sense' at all). Having scribbled the lyrics of Goodnight Moon down from the language blog, I actually read it aloud to Alf and Bert when they were little from a scrap of paper. It became a ritual at bedtime to read this poem, which is of course, what Goodnight Moon is all about (the anthropomorphic bunny's bedtime routine). 

Three years on and having purchased the board book version, this book remains consistently part of the bedtime routine in that one of my children (at least) will always, choose this to read out to their baby brother. The poem is rhythmic and surreal. Illustrator Clement Hurd has used bold psychedelic orange and green alongside black silhouette and shadow, making the illustrations quite haunting, ethereal. 

Goodnight Moon seems to be enjoying a new / renewed fame in the UK at the moment, as I've seen it on sale in art galleries and being pushed in more highend book shops lately. I assume this is because it is deemed a young children's 'classic' and is easily marketable as an American cult classic at that. I would like to see  The Quangle Wangle's Hat be reinvented like this, in the same way, as to me it's tantamount to Goodnight Moon in its ethereal nature and has the same iconic pictorials. 

Loved by my older children as an easy- read to the baby each night, Goodnight Moon is perfectedly pitched at the 1-2 year age range. It holds their attention in a rather hynoptic way, with its duo-toned block pictures, such as the lamp, and use of black and white, such as the house. I'm sure I've read before that babies under 4 months only see in this basic colour wheel, so again Goodnight Moon is ideal for the very youngest of bookworms and their parents.
In all, this is a really lovely, dreamy, familiar, ritualistic read, and it always puts a neat full stop on the night.