In addition to adding sounds to our readings, the best thing about reading with my Mama and Dada is that they REALLY get into my books using their voices.  They emphasize important words by speaking louder, making their voices go up or down in pitch, or drawing out certain syllables.   In other words, they use tons of inflection.  Talk about EN-ter-TAIN-ing!

But reading with inflection isn’t just about entertainment: it also helps me to begin associating written letter combinations with their sounds (e.g. “ph” makes an “f” sound), to pronounce words, and to better understand the story.  I also learn an important strategy for decoding new words: sounding out words by segmenting them into syllables.  When my parents run their fingers under the words as they read, it helps me make all of these associations even more easily.  And now that my Mama and Dada have been reading with inflection for so long, I’ve started reading like that myself (which is totally entertaining for them!).

Using inflection is a part of every book that we read, but some authors go out of their way to make it very easy to do.  These books are always among my favorites, mostly because they are so fun to hear.  Here are a few to get you started.  Books are ordered from least to most complex, but I still enjoy even the simplest of them.

  What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas: If you’re new to the whole inflection thing, this book is a great one to start with.  The illustrations are simple and expressive, and the text is spare, very big, and deliberately constructed to emphasize certain words.  Oh yeah, the book is also hilarious.  A good book for practicing running your finger under the text, too.  Other Jan Thomas books work equally well (The Doghouse is another of my favorites), but this one was my first Jan Thomas book and remains my favorite.

  The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? (Pigeon) by Mo Willems: Another fantastic book that is perfect for exaggerated readings.  Similar to What Will Fat Cat Sit On, the illustrations are simple, the text spare, and the type helps tell you how to read it with inflection.  It’s also pretty darn funny, as are all of Mo Willems’s books.  If this particular book doesn’t appeal to your child, try any of Willems’s books (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and the Elephant and Piggie books are other favorites of mine).

  The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street) (Little Golden Book) by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin: Another long-time favorite, Monster shares the same text elements as the first two books in this list: large font with emphasis built into the type to make it very easy to read with inflection.  As an added bonus, Grover talks to the reader, begging and pleading to not turn the page.  I love this book in part because it is interactive.

  Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea: This book is geared toward a slightly older toddler (3-5).  The language is more advanced and the dialogue between the two characters, Goat and Unicorn, takes a few readings for a toddler to figure out.  (Tip: Mama adds in “Goat says…” and “then Unicorn says” to make the exchanges between characters a little easier to understand)  Once you figure out the dialogue, however, the book is really fun to read.  Emphasis on certain words is built into the text using color and size, and once you are comfortable with the personalities of the characters, this book is also a good one for adding your own inflection.  Ham it up!

  Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss:  Classic!  Definitely for an older toddler as it is fairly long, but so much fun to both read and listen to!  Unlike the other books on this list, there are very few text features to help parents figure out which words to emphasize.  Instead, I included it because it is the easiest non-explicit inflection book that I’ve encountered.  It just begs to be read with more and more frustration as the “guy with the tall hat” refuses to try the green eggs and ham that the persistent Sam offers him.

Some parents are naturally good at using inflection, and if that is you, then hopefully these books will simply give you something entertaining to read.  For other parents, reading with inflection does not come as easily, and if that is you, then I hope that these books will help you learn a little something that will help make reading even more fun for both you and your child.

Happy reading!

–Luke (blog co-star, age 2 and a half)