When I pick up books for cheeky from the library I base it on a few things
-Books that relate to specific issues we are dealing with
-Books that keep him interested (not too verbose)
-Books that teach him things in a way he’d be willing to learn
-Books that has characters he can associate within immediate family and friends
-Books that are just plain fun for him
So this time around I picked
The boy who wouldn’t share by Mike Reiss: Cheeky has not been too happy to share his things with his sister and no amount of explaining or reasoning worked to the extent we would have liked, so I found this book and wanted to give it another try!
The book has two main characters – Edward and his baby sister Claire. Edward is a really grumpy and grizzly boy who never shares his toys. He wouldn’t let his sister share his teddy bear, rocking chair or even his slinky. He says ‘they’re all mine’ and doesn’t let her even touch it. As a result he is snowed under his toys while his mum comes in with some yummy fudge. She can’t see Edward and gives it all to Claire. It then goes on to say his sister Claire was really kind and knew that it was only fair to share and she shared it with his teddy bear. Edward understands how nasty and mean he’s been. Claire then shares with him as well and he realizes his mistake. And at the day of the end he says the day turned out just fine
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A lovely book to drive home a simple message. In cheeky’s language ‘nini’ is any treat. He has used that word since he was 10 months old. So, it was simple and easy for me. I said amma came in with ‘nini’ and since she couldn’t find Edward, she gave it all to Claire and left. When I said that his eyes popped and I am sure his mind registered the message. It is work in progress and we are much better than where we started, but we are far from the goal. With all his books he loves to associate the familiar names/people he knows, so as you can imagine in this book ‘Edward’ was Cheeky, ‘Claire’ was Smiley and ‘Mother’ was amma and of course teddy bear was ‘bluey’.
Goodnight Andrew by Guido Van Genechten: A few months ago we were having a tricky time with getting Cheeky to bed. He wanted to play non-stop and not go to sleep. I thought Goodnight Andrew might help.
This book was first first published as: Het grote slaap-boek in Belgium. In 2002 it was published in English as Goodnight Andrew. This book basically tells children everyone goes to sleep and goes on to tell how each animal sleeps. For eg the bat sleeps upside down and the crocodile sleeps on his belly in the sand, the snake sleeps up high in the tree and the elephant sleeps standing up under the tree. End of the book it says Andrew sleeps on the bed cuddled between his bears.
So, Andrew is Cheeky and his bears are bluey, anu meenu, ajju meenu and titey. For a brief background go here. Worked like magic . This is always the last book we read and cheeky automatically knows it is sleep time after that
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From Head to Toe/ Brown Bear Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: Eric Carle is a hot favourite in our household. I picked these because it was fun, colourful, vibrant and educative for cheeky.
From Head to Toe is a fun book where you can get the kids to stand up and do actions and enjoy. Introduces them to their various body parts and also actions they can perform with those respective parts. Smiley joins in the fun too when we read the book. It goes like this
I am a gorilla and I can thump my chest
Can you do it?
I am a monkey and I can wave my arms
Can you do it?
I am an elephant and I can stomp my feet
Can you do it?
And cheeky screams
’I can do it’ with the accompanied action!
Smiley follows cheeky and does the same action. It is so much fun and they love it. We’ve learnt animals, actions we can do with coordination and it is also fun for them. The fact that they get to do activity while reading a book makes it so much more fun! Kids are so quick at grasping things, they even know the order of what animal and action comes next
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Brown Bear, as I mentioned in this post, is just a matter of associating the colours of the animals and the animals itself in the book. There are just 3 lines in each page and so it is easy enough for a toddler to learn and repeat.
Both the books, From Head to toe and Brown Bear Brown Bear is a true confidence builder in kids. Gives them confidence in the actions they can do when they affirm it ‘I can do it’ and also makes them confident with their ability to read on their own as opposed to being read to (well from their perspective it works, right).
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is again one of our top favourites around here. Absolutely lovely book – colourful, vibrant, shows kids little concepts they can grasp easily – days of the weeks, numbers 1-5, fruits, introduction to various kinds of food, concept of opposites big/small, colours and also concept of growth – an egg becomes a caterpillar and then a butterfly. Perfect for a toddler to grasp and enjoy the concepts and it brings a smile to the adult who is reading the book too. An infectiously happy, fun and plesant reading experience.
Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson – This book is the story of a little monkey who has lost his Mum and a butterfly that tries to help him find the little monkey’s mother. The little monkey begins to describe his mother in ways he can articulate. So, first the monkey tells the butterfly that she’s bigger than him and so they begin the search. The first animal that the butterfly offers to the little monkey as his Mum is an elephant! The little monkey sees the elephant and says “My Mum isn’t a great grey hunk. She hasn’t got tusks …”
The butterfly then takes the little monkey to the different animals that he thinks could be the moneky’s mum based on the little monkey’s description. So for example when the monkey says she’s got more legs, he takes the monkey to a spider and when the monkey says my mum leaps and springs, butterfly takes him to a parrot. So they pass many animals and the monkey finally says after getting frustrated, Butterfly, butterfly, can’t you see? None of these animals look like me. But the butterfly then says you never told me your mum looks like you. So, the monkey says I thought you’d know and then the butterfly goes on with how would I – this is followed by a picture of its baby the caterpillar who looks way different to himself (the butterfly). The book finally ends with the little monkey finding his dad and then his mum eventually
!
We love this book. It is a little more verbose than the rest we’ve seen, but he loves the colourful illustration and the different animals. It is easy to talk about the characteristic of that particular animal and the fact that the little baby monkey has lost its mum gets a very ‘pavam’ look from cheeky! He sympathizes with the little monkey and is happy when he finds his mum and dad finally. A very very cute book for toddlers.
Cheeky Charlie by Ben Redlich – This book is about a cheeky monkey who keeps teasing and poking fun of others. He makes fun of everyone who comes his way just because he is bored. He goes this way until he is reminded by a fellow monkey that his bottom is no different than theirs. Does he at least get the point then?
This is the least favourite of the books. May be because cheeky is not at the age where he understands making fun of other’s behaviour and being rude to others. May be between 4-5 years this book would have made more sense to him. So, when I start reading this book he is happy to sleep
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We are looking forward to the next set of books we are going to pick up. Any recommendations for a 3 yr old?