Library Finds: 7th May 2012
Baby and I love going to the library once a week or so. He’s only one, but we already make a big deal of sitting in front of the little bookcase and choosing three books to take home with us. To be completely open about it, his choices often consist of ‘which is closest to me?’ and ‘which has the chewiest corners?’, so I do help him out with his selection every now and then.
This week we have:
This is a ‘shiny touch’ book, and quite frankly I can’t see the point of that premise. It has little raised areas that Baby has absolutely no interest in touching, but then he’s never been as enamoured with touchy feely books as I thought he would be. The illustrations and words in this are great though. I love the bold images (I would be sorely tempted to hang the picture of a crocodile on my wall), and Baby loves the animal noises, which haven’t failed to raise a smile every time we’ve read it so far. His favourites are the tee-heeing monkeys.
2. Poppy Cat Beep, Beep! – Lara Jones
We’ve not tried a Poppy Cat book yet, but this seems like a good introduction. It has a beeping button, which is really, really addictive to press. The best selling point of this book is the rhyme. Some of the first books that caught Baby’s imagination were those with a strong rhythm, and this is a good one, with lots of bumpy, whizzy, whee-ing noises for mum or dad to add texture to the telling.
3. Jungle Street Hide-and-Seek – Diane and Christyan Fox
This book is about a little zebra called Barcode – is that satirical social commentary for toddlers? Anyway, it doesn’t matter. It’s a lift the flap book about different animals hiding in different places. The images aren’t as strong as Powell’s, and the text isn’t as good as Jones’, but it’s a really fun book, with lots of scope for silly character voices and an ending that surprised and delighted me, even if Baby was too young to get it.
So to pick a favourite this week would be hard. I’m sure on any other week, all three would have a chance at being the best of the bunch, but this week it’s definitely Animals. The pictures will entrance artsy mums, and toddlers will love your impressions of snoring pandas.
Have you been to your local library this week? Are any of these books your bubba’s favourite?
Let me know by leaving a comment.
yooeel 