The Interactive Book: A Child’s (and Parent’s!) Best Friend

Kicking my legs like a donkey.  Dancing to get a bug out of my shirt.  Pressing a yellow dot to see what happens to it.  Gleefully yelling, “NO!”  to repeated appeals from a pigeon to drive a bus.

Interactive books are a fantastic way to easily engage little readers (even the most rambunctious).  Unfortunately, as my Mama and I have found, they are difficult to do well.  Some “interactive” books have fuzz to feel, doors to open, slots to slide, or buttons to push, but these gimmicks often add very little to the story, and they don’t have much staying power for me.  The very best interactive books, however, manage to do a much better job of using manipulatives or interaction to enhance or even become the story.  These are the books that I return to over and over again.

By no means an exhaustive list, here are a few of my favorite interactive books in order from least to most complex.  I dislike putting ages on these books because I read them at many different stages for many different reasons, and other children deserve not to be pigeonholed, too.

  Are You a Cow? by Sandra Boynton:  I like saying “No.”  Really, really like saying, “No.”  It was one of my first words and continues to be a favorite.  Hence, the appeal of Are You a Cow?  The question is addressed to the reader and begs to be answered.  No, no, no!  What a great concept!

 

  From Head to Toe Board Book by Eric Carle:  This book is a good one because the animals in the book do all sorts of fun movements and then ask the reader, “Can you do it?”  Some movements are easy enough for a one year old, and others are more complicated and definitely for older children (donkey kick!).

 

   Alphabet (Paula Wiseman Books) by Matthew Van Fleet:  Alphabet is one of those rare touch and feel books that is exceptionally well done.  Not only are the illustrations funny and the animals imbued with loads of character, but it’s a rhyming alphabet book that incorporates the “touch and feel” element into the rhyme.  This book is now on my independent reading bookshelf, and I still pull it out about once a week.

 

  Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas:  This book not only addresses the reader, but it asks the reader to do things to help the story along.  Like do the chicken dance to get a tickly bug out of your shirt.  And make a scary face to chase away a GIANT HUNGRY FROG!  How fun is that?

 

  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems:  This book has become a classic.  It begins with a simple request from a bus driver going on break: “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus.”  The reader’s job, then, is to say, “No!”  Over and over again.  (See above Are You a Cow? review for more about my fondness for the word, “No.”)  I heart this book.

 

  Press Here by Henre Tullet:  Ahhh!  The granddaddy of all interactive children’s books!  I’ve been reading this book for a long time now.  In fact, I read it yesterday.  It starts with, “Ready?” on a page with one yellow dot.  The next page says, “Press here and turn the page.”  Now there are two yellow dots.  Woah.  That’s crazy.  The rest of the book progresses from there, with the reader pressing dots, blowing dots, turning on lights, tilting the book, and clapping, with each action creating an amazing reaction.  What a cool book.

 

  Have You Ever Seen a Sneep? by Tasha Pym and Joel Stewart:  In the tradition of There’s a Wocket in My Pocket, a little boy in the book addresses the reader about a variety of strange creatures that inhabit his life, and after each creature has been introduced, the boy asks the reader if he or she has ever seen such a being.  I like to mess with my Mama and say, “Yes!”  The illustrations are really well done, and the creatures are amusing.  At the end, the little boy asks if he can come live with the reader.  Ha!

 

  The Big Blue Spot by Peter Holwitz:  Not the most interactive book on this list, but the spot in the book talks to the reader and asks him or her to tilt the book.  I love this book though, and I’ve loved it for a really long time.  My Mama had to buy us a copy because we checked it out of the library for 12 weeks.  The spot is looking for a friend (whom he finds toward the end), and this idea of friendship is very interesting to me.  Simple text, simple message, simple illustrations, golden story.

 

  The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street) (Little Golden Book) by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin:  Classic!  Grover spends the book completely freaked out about a monster that’s at the end of the book, and he implores the reader to, “Stop turning pages!” over and over again.  He even goes so far as to brick up the page to prevent the reader from turning it.   I love this book because Grover is such a character and I feel as though I have the power to influence the story.  Love it!

Happy reading!

–Luke (blog co-start, age two and a half)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tickling the Funny Bone: Children’s Books with Surprises

I love funny books.  I especially enjoy books with surprising twists at the end, and the more surprising, the better.  My Dada is always VERY excited about surprise endings (and by that I mean LOUD!), but my Mama is very good at explaining or asking me why the endings are surprising (she doesn’t seem able to entirely purge herself of her English teacher tendencies).  I like reading with both of them because of these different styles.

Good books always have some kind of resolution at the end, but there are always those few special authors who seem to have a knack for creating better surprises than the rest.  Here are a few of my favorites over the past two and a half years.  They are ordered from less complex to more complex words/phrases/concepts, but I return to even the simplest books every once in awhile just because they’re still funny.

  •   Peek-A Who? by Nina Laden: Page after page of surprises, with the very best surprise at the end!  For the littlest readers. 
  •   But Not the Hippopotamus (Boynton on Board) by Sandra Boynton: Lots of repetition that I picked up on pretty quickly, and I love the last two pages.  Two surprises!  Mama likes the clever rhyme. 
  •   Where Is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek:  Tons of neat things to talk about in this book: colors, activities, counting sheep, and of course, the burning question, “Where is that green sheep?!”  The big reveal is on the last page.  
  •    I’m The Biggest Thing in the Ocean! and I’m the Scariest Thing in the Castle by Kevin Sherry:  These two books follow a similar pattern, but they are different enough that I liked them both.  I still like to read Scariest Thing in the Castle every now and again. 
  •    Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business:  The surprise in this book actually comes in the middle of the book.  When I first started reading this book (we read the board book version first), Mama and I talked about the colors of the peddler’s hats and counted them, too.  
  •    The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street) (Little Golden Book) by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin:  A classic starring lovable, furry old Grover, but I love it because it’s interactive and lends itself to a very dramatic reading.  
  •    Pssst! by Adam Rex:  A girl visits a zoo one day and the animals start asking her for things.  She has no idea why she’s gathering all of this strange stuff, but we get to find out at the very end.  I read this book over and over again right around when I turned two.  Love it!  
  •   Jumpy Jack & Googily by Meg Rosoff and Sophie Blackall: My Mama gets the biggest kick out of this book.  She keeps talking about “irony.”  Despite the weird weighty word, however, I think it’s pretty funny myself and have been known to repeat the punchline ad nauseam.  Mama  uses different voices for the two characters (a scared, jumpy snail who thinks that there are monsters hiding everywhere and his friend, Googily, who happens to be a monster himself), and they’re pretty funny, too.  

Happy reading!

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

 

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Weekly Bookshelf–Books for One to Two Year Olds–Installment 1

The first short list of my favorite books from when I turned one to when I turned two:


  Five Little Pumpkins (Harper Growing Tree) illustrated by Dan Yaccarino: I loved this book when I first turned one.  The classic rhyme has been illustrated by many different artists, but this particular version appealed to me most.  The illustrations are brightly colored with larger graphics, and they are simple yet filled with expression.  In addition to counting, my Mama and Dada liked to talk about colors and do some baby signs (moon, cat, ghost–floating hand with “ooooooo” sound), too.

  Horns to Toes and in Between by Sandra Boynton:  Ahhh….Sandra Boynton.  Genius.  Poet.  Humorist.  All for us little ones!  My Mama was teaching me body parts, and this book is one of the “body parts books” that I really liked.

  What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas: Speaking of humorists, Jan Thomas is pretty darn funny, too.  I loved this book because of the built-in theatrics.  It’s impossible to read this book without using exaggerated inflection (which helps us little ones hear word parts more clearly), and the situation is clearly urgent (especially for the various animals Fat Cat might just pop a squat on) and very funny.  The text is also simple, very large, and with few words to a page so children begin to see how individual words are separated.

  How to Catch An Elephant by Amy Schwartz:  Oh boy.  I read this book over and over and over and over again with both Mama and Dada for a full year.  It’s much longer and more involved than any other book I really liked in this period.  Really, it’s more like a book for a three year old, but I loved it because of the foot stomping and the elephant sounds and the repetition and the complexity of the puzzle.  The resolution is a fairly tough idea for a little person (inverted telescope makes the elephant smaller), but that’s part of the reason I liked it.  It was challenging!

Mama’s note: This last book was a stretch for Luke, but it exposed him to more advanced vocabulary, sentence structure, and plot line.  He requested it multiple times a day for a very long time.  We wore out the renewals at our library (12 weeks all told), and then I finally bought a copy.  My first record of us reading it was at 12.5 months, and we read it six times that day!

Happy reading!

—Luke (blog co-star, age two and a half)

 

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On Acting the Fool: Reading Tip About Reading With Sounds

 

My Mama and Dada are fools.  Wait.  Perhaps I should clarify.  My Mama and Dada act like fools when they read with me.  They’ve acted this way since they first began reading to me, and it’s part of the reason why I love reading with them so much.  They add noises wherever they possibly can.  They add noises that don’t even exist in real life, all so I will engage in the books they read.  And the noises work!  I love books with lots of possible sound effects, and now that I’ve begun my own pretend play scenarios, I use the sounds myself.

Here are some of the books that provide plenty of opportunities for both animal sounds and other noises that my Mama and Dada read to me when I was really little:

Here are a few books that I liked when I got a little older:

Here are a few other sounds that my Mama and Dada use throughout the books we read:

  • up and down (brrrrrrp with ascending and descending pitch)
  • walking (doot doot doot with fingers walking)
  • running (huffing and arms swinging)
  • doors opening (creeeeeak)
  • falling down (thump or ka-boom)
  • cars or go (vroom)
  • stop (errrrrrr! Or screeeech!)
  • wind blowing (hooooo)
  • rain (pshhhhh with fingers wiggling up to down to mimic rain)
  • squirrels (sing-song “squirrel, squirrel, shake your bushy tail” and have child wiggle)
  • flowers (sniff flowers and have child sniff, too)

Act the fool!  Add sounds wherever you can.  They draw in little guys and gals like me and help us really enjoy reading with you!

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

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Spotlight on Mo Willems

Mama: To all parents: If you haven’t read any Mo Willems books to your child yet, then you should run out and buy some because they are really good.

Luke: Mama, I think we need to tell people why Mo Willems’s books are so good, don’t you?

Mama: You go first, Luke.

Luke: Ok, fine. Here are my top five reasons why Mo Willems’s books have been among my favorites for over two years now:

5. Elephant and Piggie books are all really funny and easy enough to read for a beginning reader, but my favorite is I’m a Frog! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)because the turn of events at the end makes me laugh every time.

4. “1, 2, 3 Peeeeeee!” has become our household mantra during potty training. (Time to Pee!)

3. The pigeon makes a cameo appearance in every Elephant and Piggie book, and I love searching for him.

2. The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? (Pigeon) This book’s main character, the duckling, has an ingenious way of off-loading his nut-laden cookie onto his less-than-mature nemesis, the pigeon.

1. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! perfectly captures the ridiculousness of the escalation that occurs when a toddler wants something he can’t have. It’s stinking hilarious. Even to the toddler reading it who is being mocked.

Your turn, Mama.

Mama: Thanks, Luke. I really like how specific your reasons are. Ok, so here are my top five reasons why Mo Willems books have been a staple in our house since before Luke turned one.

1. There is an inherent appeal to books that are funny, and Mo Willems has a knack for being funny. Even more impressive, however, is the fact that he is so funny in so few words. Therein lies his mad genius and the main reason why I appreciate his books on an adult, literary level…brevity is the soul of wit, etc.

2. The Pigeon books fill a very specific niche in early literacy development: Very simple text written in big type; simple, expressive illustrations; an endearing character; and, as Luke mentioned, simple storylines that are absolutely hilarious. Even to adults.

3. Willems’s Knuffle Bunny books fill another niche in early literacy development. More complex sentences, pictures, and storylines lend these books to read-alouds with the more advanced toddler set. In addition, the pictures/illustrations are interesting and just that: a combination of photography and illustration that a visually interesting to look at for both toddlers and adults. Luke is not as enamored of these books as he is of Willems’s others.

4. The Elephant and Piggie books are our new favorites. Since Luke has started reading simple books on his own, these books’ big type and simple sentences, yet longer, more complex character interactions are the perfect match for his abilities. And they are very funny. Gerald (the elephant) is a serious worry-wart, while his friend Piggie is fun-loving and adventurous, and their exchanges are truly comical.

5. Did I mention that Willems’s books are just plain funny?

Luke (14 months old) and Pigeon

Luke (14 months old) and Pigeon

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Weekly Bookshelf–Books for Birth to One Year Olds–Installment 1


Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You : Dr. Seuss’s Book of Wonderful Noises (Bright and Early Board Books): One of my favorite books when I was little!  A fantastic book for engaging the littlest of us because of the sounds.  Really get into the sounds and your child will avidly follow along.  My two favorite parts were knocking on the book (for “hand on a door, knock knock!”) and the “boom, boom boom!” of the thunder (Dada really got into this one, and Mama liked to bounce me a little on her lap with each boom).


The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: Clearly a classic, but I loved it because my Mama used signs and sounds throughout the book.  Moon sign, sun sign, eating sounds, and caterpillar sounds (ee, er, ee, er) and finger inching like a caterpillar.  My favorite part of the book was always the beautiful butterfly at the very end.  My Mama loved talking about all of the colors on its wings.


The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss’s Wacky Book of Opposites: Another good book for baby signs and sounds.  Going up and down stairs (Mama’s voice would pitch up and down and she’d walk her fingers up and down the stairs, too), sun sign, moon sign, sick sounds (stuffy nose) and well sounds (happy voice).


Pajama Time! (Boynton on Board)by Sandra Boynton: I loved this book for two years!  The rhyme and rhythm are both so catchy, and there are so many things to do and talk about with this little gem.  My favorite part was “Pajammy to the left, pajammy to the right!  Jamma, jamma, jamma, jamma, P! J!”  Mama would dance me to the left, to the right, and then bounce me a little on the P! J!  Sandra Boynton is a genius.

 

For more information about why my Mama and Dada used baby signs and lots of other hand motions while reading with me, see the Mama’s Corner post from March 25, 2014: Baby Signs and Nurture Shock: Why Baby Signs Work.

Happy Reading!

–Luke (blog co-author, age two and a half)

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Baby Signs and Nurture Shock: Why Baby Signs Work


I loved using baby signs (simplified sign language) with Luke.  From when he was born, and knowing full well that I wouldn’t see a return sign for many many months, I did signs as I read even the simplest books with him.  Bird, fish, lion, cat, sheep, dog.  I felt that it was engaging for both of us, and the authors of Baby Signs (the book that I used as a reference), Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, laid out convincing anecdotal and research-based rationales explaining why signs were worthwhile for creating life-long readers (clearly, a passion of mine).

But I never really understood how they worked.  Because they did work.  Luke didn’t ever use all 50 or so signs that I eventually had in my repertoire, but he certainly understood most of them, and he loved using and watching them as we read.  I’m convinced that he paid more attention to the letters and words on the page because of baby signs, and they helped him understand the abstract, symbolic nature of language.  I know that signs were part of the reason why Luke could recognize his letters by 16 months, read words by 18 months, and read sentences by 24 months.

I recently finished a book called Nurture Shock  by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.  The book references new brain research that debunks many firmly-held parenting beliefs, including beliefs about language acquisition.  Many parents have heard that talking to babies is invaluable for a language acquisition head start.  But what the research shows is that simply inundating babies with words is only part of the story.  There are actually a few different things that, when used together, can make language acquisition even easier for babies.

1) Speak in “parentese”: Yup.  That funny voice you use when you exaggerate the pitch of your voice and elongate parts of words.  It helps babies  begin hearing how words are made of distinct sounds and makes the sounds easier to imitate.

2) Use “motionese”: Using a distinct motion for a word helps baby link the object you’re naming and the word you’re saying.

3) Response time: According to Bronson and Merryman, even more important than the sheer number of words spoken to a baby is the response time between a baby looking at an object or making a sound of interest in something and the parent’s reaction or labeling of the object.  Five seconds is about the window before a baby’s attention lags.

So, although Bronson and Merryman don’t specifically link these three ideas to baby signs, the ideas sure do go a long way toward explaining just why baby signs are so effective.  When you read using baby signs, you repeat the words used with signs in “parentese,” you perform a motion with your hand that helps baby focus on the word, and because you’re always on the lookout for any kind of baby sign from baby as you read, your response time to baby’s unspoken questions is short.  And voila!  You’ve just kick started language acquisition.  Cool, right?

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Weekly Bookshelf–Books for Two to Three Year Olds–Installment 1


Tickle Time!: A Boynton on Board Board Bookby Sandra Boynton: A huge favorite of mine because, well, there’s tickling involved.  Who doesn’t enjoy tickling?

Mary Engelbreit’s Mother Goose: One Hundred Best-Loved Verses: Various nursery rhymes (repeated over and over and over again): I like the collection illustrated by Engelbreit because the rhymes are formatted one to a page and the illustrations are very bright and colorful.



Alphabet (Paula Wiseman Books) by Matthew Van Fleet: Very well-done touch and feel animal alphabet book.  My favorite animal is the sticky octopus.


Alphabet Cityby Stephen T. Johnson: Really neat life-like illustrations of letters found in unlikely places in the city.  Jump started my own interest in finding letters out in the world.

 

 

Pssst!by Adam Rex: A girl visits the zoo and the animals each ask her for something very specific.  You don’t find out until the very end what they use everything for!

 

Posted by Luke (blog co-author, age two and a half)

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