Hello fellow MOPS moms,
If you're like me, then you're concerned about making sure your children get a good head start on their literacy skills, long before they enter formal schooling. Reading books with your children is one of the best ways to help your children learn to read, and it's also a great way to bond with them too. As a former children's librarian, children's books are still a passion of mine. I love sharing great books with other moms and their kids, in the hopes that they will love them as much I did. You'll probably hear me talk about my son's reading preferences a lot, as he is my live-in guinea pig now. He is almost 3 years old and thankfully loves to be read to. For this entry, I am focusing on one of his favorite kind of picture books -- alphabet books.
Alphabet books are so much more interesting than they were 30+ years ago when they were being read to me as a child. Authors and illustrators find new and creative ways to make learning beginning alphabet sounds fun and unforgettable. My latest alphabet book read is called "Alphabet Trucks" by Samantha Vamos and Ryan O'Rourke. Published in 2013, this book is a likely new read for many. If you have a child who loves cars, trucks and other vehicles, then this alphabet book will catch their attention. Each letter has a different truck associated with it. The catchy rhyming text keeps the story flowing along. The pictures are cute with each truck having its associated letter on or around it in some way. You can find the book here on Amazon!
The next book is one that I've read so often that I wonder if it will conveniently go missing sometime, but my son absolutely loves it. "Naughty Little Monkeys" is by Jim Aylesworth and was published in 2006. The loose plot line is a human mother and father are leaving their 25 monkey "children" home alone, supposedly going to sleep in their beds, while they are going on a fancy date. While they are gone, each monkey from A to Y has a verse dedicated to the naughty thing that he or she does. For example, the E monkey is named "Emily" and she is playing with Mommy's earrings. The illustrations are funny, and the text is rhyming and flows well. By the end of the book, the parents return home to a disastrously messy house and plenty of guilty monkeys. They send them all to the zoo the next morning, but are the monkey there to stay or for fun? You can find the book here on Amazon!
The final book I highlight this time is an old old classic. "Dr. Seuss's ABC" by Dr. Seuss himself, originally published in 1963. Dr. Seuss' Easy Reader books are so attractive to toddlers and preschoolers because of the great pictures and humorous text. I think I have read this book to my son so many times that he has half of the alphabet rhymes memorized. All I have to do is say, "Big A, Little A, What begins with A?" I'll hear his little voice chanting back, "Aunt Annie's Alligator... A! A! A!" Of course, my favorite letter in this book is Z, to which Dr. Seuss describes the Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz. Dr. Seuss never had a problem with creating his own critters to suit his fancy. You can find the book here on Amazon!
Look forward to my next blog entry, in which I will explore some popular baby board books that would be great for your littlest people!
--Emily Hawkins
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