Tag: children’s lit

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Book Nook: Tails by Matthew Van Fleet

I’m a strong believer in early literacy. I started reading board books to both my daughters when they were three months old. We didn’t always get through the whole book (on a good day we read three pages!) but I kept at it until we were able to finish a whole book, and then move on to more and more reading!

These are a couple our favorite lift-the-flap books. Not only do they have sturdy flaps that will never tear off, they have sturdy “action tabs.” They are also touch and feel books, with wonderful textures on a variety of animals. They are like getting three books in one!

Tails Tails by Matthew Van Fleet

This book taught even ME something! One of the animals highlighted in this book is a pangolin, and I had never heard of pangolins before – they are a scaly anteater. There are furry tails, spiny tails, shiny tails, and even a whale tail in this fun book! I loved bringing this book to church with us when both my daughters were babies. This was the page that kept them occupied the longest:

They would touch those shiny, crinkly spots on the peacock’s tail for a really long time. (It wasn’t a whole sermon’s worth of entertainment, but it came close!)

Alphabet comes with an ABC poster with pop-up flaps for each letter. As soon as I put this poster on the wall, my toddler ripped a flap off. The poster isn’t as sturdy as the books themselves, and so I put it away for when my youngest gets a little less rough. (Now, if I can only remember where I put it…)

Alphabet Alphabet by Matthew Van Fleet

I love the bristly, yellow bees, which have the rough side of Velcro for their texture. There is a huge variety of textures from sticky octopus tentacles to the squishy insides of a clam. And of course, plenty of sturdy flaps for your child to open!

Janna over at The Adventure of Motherhood is hosting “Feed Me Books Friday,” so if you would like to read about more lift-the-flap books, click on her button below!

The Adventure of Motherhood
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Sick Day

Bear Feels SickLily is sick, so this is her sick day, not mine. She is sitting on the couch, sneezing and sniffling and coughing, poor thing. I think she’ll stay home from preschool today, and we’ll do things like snuggle and read Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson and drink lots of juice. And maybe watch a movie. Emmy, who feels perfectly well, is already pestering her sister unmercifully, so I can see it will also be a day of refereeing.

Whenever one of my children is sick, I think of this poem by A. A. Milne, from Now We Are Six:

Christopher Robin
Had wheezles
And sneezles,
They bundled him
Into
His bed.
They gave him what goes
With a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold
In the head.
They wondered
If wheezles
Could turn
Into measles,
If sneezles
Would turn
Into mumps;
They examined his chest
For a rash,
And the rest
Of his body for swellings and lumps.
They sent for some doctors
In sneezles
And wheezles
To tell them what ought
To be done.

All sorts and conditions
of famous physicians
Came hurrying around
At a run.
They all made a note
Of the state of his throat
They asked if he suffered from thirst;
They asked if the sneezles
Came after the wheezles,
Or if the first sneezle
Came first.
They said, “If you teazle
A sneezle
Or wheezle,
A measle
May easily grow.
But humour or pleazle
The wheezle
Or sneezle,
The measle
Will certainly go.”
They expounded the reazles
For sneezles
And wheezles,
The manner of measles
When new.
They said, “If he freezles
In draughts and in breezles,
Then PHTHEEZLES
May even ensue.”

Christopher Robin
Got up in the morning,
The sneezles had vanished away.
And the look in his eye
Seemed to say to the sky,
“Now, how to amuse them today?”