I don’t think I know how many people have read certain books. I think I read bestseller types mainly. Not on purpose, but because that’s how I come to hear of them. I don’t read something just because it’s a bestseller though, but because I like the sound of the synopsis.
For today’s picture book I’ve chosen a book that I’d like everyone to read because I think it’s wonderful.
Dangerous: Tim Warnes (Little Tiger Press, 2014)
Mole loves to label things. He’s happily labelling everything he finds (including a pile of poo – my five year old loved this, and it was a word she could work out herself too!) until one day he finds a strange lumpy bumpy thing and, not knowing what it is, he sticks lots of labels onto it.
Lumpy, bumpy, strange, unusual, huge, peculiar, green… But what if, actually, this new thing is DANGEROUS? Mole sticks on another label. The lumpy bumpy thing wakes up and starts to eat Mole’s labels, which upsets Mole and he wants nothing to do with the strange creature. But the lumpy bumpy thing wants to play and gets sad when it’s rejected. Perhaps there’s another label Mole can use?
Danger Girl (5) absolutely loves stories. Our bed is currently covered in the half dozen or so books that she dragged onto it early this morning, I read her at least three books every night or she can’t sleep (we compromise on which books – three longer ones, or more shorter ones) and she constantly flicks through books over and over, telling her own stories. She has always loved stories and books.
But where Mighty Girl (7) was writing her name and recognising words at three, Danger Girl has found learning to read and write a longer process and is coming to the end of reception year far ‘behind’ where her sister was at the same stage. This doesn’t bother me in the slightest, she will read when she is ready (and perhaps her recent eye test and prescription for glasses has had something to do with her being slower to pick things up too!)
Danger Girl balks at reading sentences in books, but left to her own devices, she carefully works out the words on labels. I have some labels on their toy storage that she’s worked out, I plan to add more. Reading Dangerous together means that she can attempt some of the words on the labels without being put off by whole sentences, so she’s practising and I’m sure one day soon all those individual words will add up to sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and books, and she won’t stop reading.
That’s not the only reason I love Dangerous. The art is adorable, the story is heartwarming, and the whole book is full of so much humour that it’s hard not to giggle (especially at some of the expressions of creatures with labels stuck on!) Dangerous is a great start to thinking of describing words (Mighty Girl knows that these are adjectives, I never got the hang of the proper names for things…) and increasing vocabulary. Dangerous is one of my top picks of picture books for 2014.
Disclosure: Dangerous received for review from Little Tiger Press.
I Love You Night and Day: Smriti Prasadam-Halls & Alison Brown (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2014)
Mum’s The Word: Timothy Knapman & Jamie Littler (Hodder Children’s Books, 2014)
Me and My Mummy: various (Little Tiger Press, 2014)
I Want My Mummy!: Tracey Corderoy & Alison Edgson (Little Tiger Press, 2013)
Mummy’s Little Sunflowers: Angela McAllister & Alison Edgson (Little Tiger Press, 2014)
Dino-Mummy: Mark Sperring & Sam Lloyd (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2014)
The Tale of Jack Frost: David Melling (Hodder Children’s Books, Anniv. ed 2013)
Abigail: Catherine Rayner (Little Tiger Press, 2013)
Winter’s Child: Angela McAllister & Grahame Baker-Smith (Templar Publishing, 2013)
All Through The Night: John Ceiriog Hughes & Kate Alizadeh (Simply Read Books, 2013)
Rules of Summer: Shaun Tan (Lothian Children’s Books, 2013)
The King of Space: Jonny Duddle (Templar Publishing, 2013)
The Tiger Who Came To Tea: Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children’s Books, Gift ed. 2013)
The Girl With A Brave Heart: Rita Jahanforua & Vali Mintzi (Barefoot Books, 2013)
Sparkly Shoes and Picnic Parties (Amelie and Nanette): Sophie Tilley (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2013)
Barbapapa and Barbapapa’s Voyage: Annette Tison & Talus Taylor (Orchard Books, new ed. 2013)
Ten Little Pirates: Mike Brownlow & Simon Rickerty (Orchard Books, 2013)
Pi-rat: Maxine Lee (Caterpillar Books, 2013)
No!: Tracey Corderoy & Tim Warnes (Little Tiger Press, 2013)
Olive and the Bad Mood: Tor Freeman (Brubaker, Ford & Friends, 2013)
Flying to Neverland with Peter Pan: Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Carolyn Leigh & Amy June Bates (Blue Apple Books, 2012)
The Phlunk: Lou Rhodes & Tori Elliot (Strata Books, 2012)
The Silent Owl: Clemency Pearce & Sam McPhillips (Top That! Publishing, 2011)
One Starry Night: M Christina Butler & Tina Macnaughton (Little Tiger Press, 2012)
Zoom, Rocket, Zoom: Margaret Mayo & Alex Aycliffe (Orchard Books, 2011)
Wibbly Pig has 10 Balloons: Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children’s Books, 2011)
First Words, Letters and Numbers
Little Tiger Press has started a new imprint this month, Little Tiger Kids. These are a series of colourful, sturdy board books with pictures of real things, big flaps, things to trace. All of which appeal to babies and toddlers. We’ve been lucky enough to be sent three to test drive. All three instantly appealed to MG and DG with the bright colours and flaps and they’ve been having fun with them. I’m going to review from a grown up educational viewpoint but in terms of child-appeal, these are winners.
There are similar books to this already available and to be fair Priddy Books have probably got the corner on this market but it would be an oversight for Little Tiger Press to have left out a book of this type in their new range, and it makes a nice addition. What Little Tiger Press have got (but I’ve not seen) is a lift-the-flap version of the 100 first words which should prove to be extremely popular. Based on the flaps in the Numbers book that we have seen, these are likely to be extremely robust and great for fine motor skills. Using real pictures is important for very young children who are learning to organise and categorise the world. Cartoon word books are lovely but a child’s absorbent mind also needs reinforcement of the real world.
This is a book with enormous child appeal. The format is perfect. Each single page focusses on one letter. The top half of the page has the letter in upper and lower case, the upper case letter is cut out for tracing. The bottom half of the page has a picture starting with that letter and is also a giant flap with another picture for the letter underneath. Each page has bright, clear colours; uncluttered, real photographs; an easy-to-read-and-write font and start and end points for how to draw the letters. It is almost perfect and the only alphabet book you need to start a child’s journey to letter recognition and learning to read. Almost. It is let down by a lack of phonetic awareness. On chatting with other interested parties (parents and educators) on Twitter about the subject of phonetic ABC books, it was pointed out that many books are printed for a worldwide market where phonetics may not be the prescribed teaching method. In the UK (well, in England at least), every child who goes to a state-run school will be taught to read using synthetic phonics.
Phonics has its detractors but as an initial method in getting children to learn to decode quickly, it is excellent. Maria Montessori used phonetics in her methods for teaching children to read. Montessori also used sandpaper letters to get the children used to the shape of letters when they still hadn’t got the fine motor skills for writing, which this book also emulates in its touchable letter tracing. It’s only the upper case letters which are traceable, which is a pity given that we use lower case letters far more frequently in reality but it’s a good start. I also like how the start and end points for letter tracing are highlighted with red and green dots in this book.
I would still recommend this as possibly the best first ABC book I’ve seen. It ‘fails’ as an introduction to the phonetic alphabet in seven of the fifty-two words it includes. These are: ice-cream, ivy, owl, shoes, unicorn, xylophone and x-ray. Admittedly ‘x’ is impossible to do phonetically if you’re only chosing initial letters as there are no words that start with the /ks/ sound. I’m also not keen on ‘jelly beans’ as it’s two words! If you’re fussy on phonics like me, why not stick photos of igloo, insect, octopus, sock, fox and box in the book! I’ve searched but umbrella does seem to be the only object starting with the short-u sound. Up and Under are probably the best options, but hard to illustrate. In summary, this is an excellent alphabet book which is exactly what it sets out to be.
Another appealing book for children, this comes with a ‘handle’ so it can be easily carried around. I really can’t stress enough how sturdy these books are. They are made from quality strong board, have pages that feel like they wipe clean easily (we haven’t needed to test this) with big, robust flaps. In first numbers, each page shows a picture of an object or objects (one cake, two kittens, three butterflies etc); the flap can then be opened to reveal simplified pictures of the outside of the flap – for example the outside picture may have things that overlap or are slightly different e.g. different kittens, but the inside picture will have the number of things clearly shown separately and be the same in one or two colours only – plus the number with start and end dots, and tracing guide. Another wonderful ‘first’ book.
All three books have enormous child appeal and would be excellent to share starting with babies who will be attracted to the bright, simple and familiar images; onto toddlers who will love the interactivity and ownership they can take for the books; onto pre-schoolers who can take pride in recognising numbers and letters… The Little Tiger Kids range are priced between £5.99 and £8.99 which is excellent value for money, especially the First ABC book above which is only £5.99. More in the series are being released in May. These include jigsaws, tabs and touchy-feely books. If these were around when my girls were younger we would have bought lots of them!
Disclaimer: We were sent a copies of My First Book of Words: 100 First Words; My First Touch and Trace: First ABC; and My First Lift and Learn: First Numbers by Little Tiger Press for review. No other financial reward was given and the opinions are my own. I was not asked to write this post.
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Posted in Detailed Picture Book Commentary, Education, Montessori, Picture Books
Tagged 100 First Words, Alphabet, Counting, Education, First ABC, First Letters, First Numbers, First Words, Little Tiger Kids, Little Tiger Press, Montessori, My First Lift and Learn, My First Touch and Trace, My First Words