Book Review: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Lois Ehlert

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Lois Ehlert has fast become a firm favourite in this house. It is a lively story about the letters of the alphabet. The lower case letters all race to climb to the top of a coconut tree. As they climb the tree begins to sag, and sag, and sag, until eventually; Chicka chicka, BOOM BOOM! They all fall down to the ground in a crumpled, tangled, mussed up heap. Along come the upper case adults to dust off their babies but by the last page it is evident they didn't learn their lesson as 'A is out of bed and this is what he said, “Dare, double dare, you can’t catch me. I’ll beat you to the top of the coconut tree.” '

I love the simple and bright illustrations Lois Elhert has done for this book. The letters are identical to the letters on the Eric Carle Animal Flash Cards which ties them together nicely for learning. The rhyme is catchy which phrases such as "skit skat skoodle doot" and there is lots of repetition which makes it nicely predictable.

Felix adores joining in for the "BOOM BOOM" and we do make quite a production of it. He also loves shouting "OH NO" repeatedly as we get to the part where all the letters have fallen out of the tree. Since we started reading this book he has become so much more interested in letters and is bringing out all the letter related activities to do every day.

We have done some gorgeous fun crafts related to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom which I'll post about soon. I'd love to hear how well this book is received in your homes and what related activities you've been doing.  

Spot Loves His Dad by Eric Hill

We love Spot the Dog in our house, we must have at least 10 of the books by now. Spot Loves His Dad by Eric Hill was Felix's first Father's Day gift to his Dad. It's a book that Jonny and Felix regularly read together and it has a firm spot as one of Felix's all time favourite books.

There are so many appealing things about the Spot books; basic language, large text, lots of repetition and lovely simple pictures with bright, bold colours. It is an uncomplicated story about a young dog and his Dad spending a lovely day together; feeding ducks, flying a kite, kicking a ball in the park, visiting the beach and at the end of the day they curl up in bed and read a book together. What young child could imagine a day better than this.

The pictures in the book match the story beautifully and there are lots of opportunities to expand on what is written. Let's take, for example, the page above where Spot and his Dad visit the beach. First we can label the characters; Spot, Sam, and Mr. Bear. Next we can look at all the different objects; sun, boat, bucket, spade, ice-cream, ball, rug, ocean, sand, shop and shells. After that we can list all the colours and expand on our words; orange bucket, yellow sun, blue boat etc. And finally we can find all the shapes; the stars on the ice-cream shop, the sun is a circle, the boat has triangular sails etc.

There is so much opportunity throughout this book to chat with your child and to give them the opportunity to use their words. Once you've been through the book a few times, labeling the objects etc, you can start to ask your child to point to specific items on the page and as their language comes on you can point to the object and ask what it is. Don't forget to be as descriptive as possible as you go; "where is the yellow sun?", where is the orange bucket?".

This can obviously be repeated on every page through the book, turning what might have been a 1 or 2 minute story into 10 or more minutes of bonding and learning.

What Spot book is a favourite in your house? Do you have any other fun tips for reading these books with little ones?

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd is one of our "rotate regularly" books. These are the books that we need to hide for a week, every so often, just so we don't get driven demented reading them over and over and over again. And again. And again. You get the picture. It is a firm favourite of Felix's and he will even request numerous readings in succession which is rare.

It is a simple story of a young bunny's bedtime routine of saying goodnight to the things in the bedroom. It is very effective at creating a bedtime atmosphere; as you read the book you hardly notice that your voice lowers and you read the text slower until you are whispering the last line. There are lots of little details through the book that contribute to that effect; the clock progresses from 7pm to 8:10pm, the moon rises from the lower left corner of the left window and the lighting in the room grows progressively darker.

There are lots of other tiny details you come to notice after multiple readings; the tiny mouse is present on every colour page, moving about the room until on the final page he has eaten the mush, the book on the nightstand is "Goodnight Moon", and the painting on the wall in the painting of the three little bears is of the cow jumping over the moon.

There are so many way to expand this book into something more than just a simple story. Felix and I love to play "find the mouse". We go through each colour page and it's Felix's job to find the mouse. As soon as he points to it I squeek like a mouse. Well, in fact, it's absolutely nothing like a mouse, but I squeek in the most fun way possible to elicit maximum giggles. Possibly not conducive to a relaxing, sleep inducing atmosphere but sometimes fun just has to take precedence!! I like to think of the mouse as a precursour to Goldbug.

I hope you take the time to introduce this book to your child. If you do or if you already have I would love to hear what reception it got.

Animal Flash Cards by Eric Carle

This box of Animal Flash Cards by Eric Carle is absolutely fabulous. I just love everything about it, I'm unsure where to begin. Simply, it's a set of 26 flash cards, presented in a hinged box, with one card for each letter of the alphabet. One side has a beautifully illustrated animal with the name of that animal printed underneath in lowercase letters. The reverse side of the card is completely painted in matching colours and in plain white has the upper and lower case letters presented in a cut out style. The card is nice and thick and would require some amount of purpose to damage. So long as you're not raising the Tasmanian Devil these cards should last well through a family.

One of my favourite things about this set is unusual choice of animals for some letters; we get a narwhal, a quetzal, a xolo and a very familiar caterpillar to name a few. The only very small gripe I have is the use of a giraffe for the letter "g". I would much rather see a gorilla since when learning phonics, children learn the hard g of gorilla first and the soft g of giraffe later as an exception. Similarly, you would teach the hard c of cat before the soft c of centipede. But that's just a small detail and I am notoriously pedantic so you could probably just ignore that!

The important thing is that Felix loves these cards. We look at them in a leisurely fashion, with no agenda. I'm not trying to teach him to read but we talk about the animals, their noises, where they live etc. and when he shows interest, we talk about the letters. We look at the letter, I help him trace the shape of the letter with his fingers while pronouncing it and we talk about other words that begin with that letter. And by we, I obviously mean me. Basically I prattle on and he lets me know I've prattled on for long enough by taking the card, putting it back in the box and choosing another one for me to prattle on about.

Speaking of the box, that is another great part of this set. The gorgeous, sturdy, hinged, cardboard box to store the cards in. I bought this set with the intention of hanging the cards on the wall. It turns out that they are far too valuable to be relegated to a life of dangling off a wall, collecting dust. These cards are one of those child high value items that, conversely to adult high value items, gets loved to within an inch of its life. Cara has been chased with "X for xolo", "H for horse" has been clip clopped on by the Schleich Clydesdale and "J for Jellyfish" has been rescued from the bath just before the taps got turned on.

And that is truly the sign of a successful children's "book". Without even trying, Felix is learning. "D for Duck" gets the excited, ear piercing reception of "dogdogdogdog". Yes, D is for duck, but it is also for dog, and to accidentally learn that at 21 months, just because you're having fun, is fantastic.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar should be on every single child's bookshelf. It appeals to both Dexter at 3 months old and Felix at 21 months old. Dexter loves to look at the bright colours and simple bold pictures. Eric Carle's artwork is absolutely beautiful. Felix loves to name everything and to stick his fingers through the small holes in the pages.

The book follows a caterpillar from birth as he eats his was through the pages, from one apple through cheese, a lollipop and even watermelon. There are so many learning opportunities with this book. It provides a child's first science lesson, seeing the metamorphosis from an egg to a caterpillar to a butterfly. We are also introduced to an array of different foods. At the same time we are presented with the days of the week and numbers from 1 to 5. At the end of the book there is the opportunity to talk about the rainbow of colours in the butterfly's wings; red, purple, blue, green, yellow and orange.

I bought this book for Felix when he was approximately 6 months old and we have been reading it almost daily since then. His first birthday party had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and neither he not I are sick of the book yet. I can recite the book word for word but I still enjoy curling up and reading it to both boys.

Do any of you already have this book? I'd love to hear what your children think of it, if they love it as much as mine do.

If you live in North America I would recommend buying the book from Amazon.com, however if you live elsewhere in the world The Book Depository is the place to go for all your books. They offer free shipping on all books and at the moment have a 10% off sale.

Hop On Pop by Dr. Seuss

Felix's book of the week is Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss. Hop on Pop is part of the Blue Back Books by Dr. Seuss; a range of books designed for parents to share with their children. Hop on Pop is a fun read and a great introduction to rhyming words, such as Hop and Pop, Cup and Pup, Ball and Wall, See and Bee. In time, Felix will learn that he can simply change the first letter to make a whole new word.

Felix has been going through a phase of not wanting to read long books; we've been looking at a lot of picture books, just naming things and not reading the story. Hop on Pop was our reintroduction to reading. At 64 pages, it is a lengthy book and Felix did not sit through the entire thing straight away. It was on the fourth reading that we finally made it to the end. Since then we can happily read the book five times a day, sometimes more.

At the moment, "No Pat No, Don't sit on that." with the strange yellow creature about to sit on a prickly cactus is Felix's favourite page. It never fails to elicit a giggle from him and sometimes a full belly laugh. The rhythm of Hop on Pop is lovely; it can be read normally, just like any other story or you can really embrace the rhythm and almost sing your way through the book. 

Do you own this book? I would love to hear what your children think of it and what their favourite parts are.

If you live in North America I would recommend buying the book from Amazon.com, however if you live elsewhere in the world The Book Depository is the place to go for all your books. They offer free shipping on all books and at the moment have a 10% off sale.