DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONES WILL GROW? by Susan A. Shea, illustrations by Tom Slaughter

REVIEW COPY PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER

I love books where kids have to think a little before they make predictions about what will come next.

I loved Q IS FOR DUCK.

I loved TOMORROW'S ALPHABET.

The kind where kids are sitting on their knees by the second page, dying to see the pictures so they can predict what will come next.

DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONES WILL GROW is another book I'm going to put into my "predict-a-little, think-a-little, kids are for sure going to love this one" category.

The first two page spread is an introduction:

If you look around

you'll see,

Some things grow,

like you and me.

Others stay the way

they're made,

Until they crack or rust or fade.

Do you know which ones will grow?

Think, then answer,

YES or NO.

From then on, each half of two page spread contains a couplet.

The left hand page is a living thing,

the right hand side is non-living.

If a cub grows

and becomes a bear,

Can a stool grow and become…

Now, here comes the really fun part, and the part I know that kids are totally going to love. Each right hand page is a fold out, where you have to lift a flap to see the answer. And each flap is a different size or opens a different direction. The flap on the stool page, for example, lifts from the middle of the page up, and the stool becomes a chair.

Another one of my favorite pages:

If an owlet grows

and becomes an owl…

Can a washcloth grow and become…

(Pretend you are lifting the full page flap that's attached at the top)

a towel?

Tom Saunders' illustrations really complement the text. They are bright colored and eye catching- simple shapes placed on top of other shapes, in kind of a collage-ish effect.

You could use this book as an introduction to a unit

on living and non-living things.

You could use this book for teaching reading strategies. It'd be a great book for teaching readers how to cross-check pictures against beginning sounds.

You could give it as a baby present.

Or you could just read it aloud.

Because it's way fun.

And kids are going to love it.

GOOD NIGHT LITTLE SEA OTTER- Janet Halfmann

OK, I am going to subject myself to humiliation one more time. I am the book auntie. You know, the person who always makes sure that every child (and usually every adult too) has a new book in their pile of Christmas gifts. Here is one that will be in my pile for the youngest members of our family this year.

GOOD NIGHT, LITTLE SEA OTTER is a sweet, sweet, sweet going to bed story. Listen to the first page:

"As the setting sun kissed the kelp forest, Little Sea Otter snuggled on Mama's chest. Mama fluffed his fur until he looked like a brown powder puff. Then it was bedtime, but Little Sea Otter wasn't ready to sleep. "I forgot to say good night to the harbor seals," he said.

After Little Sea Otter says good night to the harbor seals, he must say good night to the sea lions. Then a seagull. Then all of the orange and yellow and purple and striped and spotted fish. And all of the creatures living in the ocean below. And finally to the most important one of all- Mama Sea Otter.

The ocean content of this book will promote some really interesting discussions with your youngest reading friends. The illustrations, with Mama and Little Sea Otter floating in a wavy ocean that start out light blue and gets a little darker with every page, are detailed and interesting. And the mood of the book has that "GOOD NIGHT MOON, the whole world is going to sleep and I am going to sleep too" kind of enchantment that little guys always love.

A perfect Christmas present for your youngest friends. This book would also make a great baby gift!

REVIEW COPY PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER

TWO NEW BABY/TODDLER PRESENTS

People who invite me to baby showers know, without a doubt, that I will bring books. Let other people bring the onesies, and diapers, and nose-sucker-outer thingies, I will bring the important stuff- food for the heart and the brain. Last week, while I was at the library (please note, I did not say bookstore!) I found a couple of really fun baby or toddler read alouds.

GOOD NIGHT BABY RUBY- Rohan Henry

Baby Ruby has had her bath, and should be headed off to bed, but no one can find her. She travels throughout the house, stopping to visit various family members and pets along the way.  This book is destined to be a classic, kind of along the lines of GOODNIGHT MOON. The illustrations are very simple- black line drawings with just a little color, just like the cover. I know kids will ask for this book again and again.

PEEKABOO BEDTIME- Rachel Isadora

PEEKABOO BEDTIME features an African American toddler preparing for bed by playing peekaboo with everything in her line of vision, e.g. "Peekaboo, I see my daddy" OR "Peekaboo, I see my cat."  The book begins with a right hand page with the phrase, "Peekaboo, I see…" When you turn the page, you see the object the child is seeing. It would only take kids a couple of pages to realize that clues in each large, brightly colored illustration allow the reader to predict what is coming next.

An aside: OK, I said these books would be good baby presents, and that's definitely true, but I could also see using the books to teach primary grade students how to use pictures to predict text or how to be good picture detectives. If I was teaching ECE, kindergarten or first grade, I would also want these books in a basket of trade books students could easily read, those NO DAVID kind of books that kids return to again and again.