Seals on the Bus: Because I like to sing about the ridiculous

Title: The Seals on the Bus
Author: Lenny Hort
Illustrator: G. Brian Karas
Genre: Picture books, rhyme
Age Range: 2-4

My son's attention span with books is not the same as my daughters. He likes looking at books of cars, but isn't all that interested in hearing the words...unless I sing them and unless they rhyme. Suddenly he curls into my lap, sits patiently and wants me to read to him.  Therefore, this book was perfect for him, because it was a song he knew (Wheels on the bus) with fun pictures of animals invading a bus with an unsuspecting family of four on it.

The book invites you to sing the words like "The seals on the bus go ..." and then you make a series of animal sounds include sheep, geese, and tigers. (which is my son's favorite.)  It is a quick rollicking read with lots of opportunities to admire the animals as they take over the bus and the family inside is forced to make it with the animals.  The last verse is about helping the family who cry "Help help help" and get off the bus.


Paperback...amazon has paperback books on their 4 for 3 deal, so you could pick up a few and give them as gifts. :)

Cars:Rushing! Honking! Zooming!: Rhyme and have fun with your child

Title: Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming!
Author: Patricia Hubbell
Illustrator: Megan Halsey and Sean Addy
Age Range: 3-8
Genre: Picture book, rhyming

There has been a lot of research done in regards to the benefits of reading aloud rhymes to your child.  Rhymes help children gain some basic building blocks to become readers.  But more than that, children love rhymes.  I think rhymes help ME to read the story with more fun and more inflection and I can see that the rhythm and rhyme engage my son an additional level besides just the story line itself.

I picked this book up on a whim and upon opening it, knew immediately that my son would love it.  The pictures are really unique, sort of retro but also modern at the same time.  The illustrators mix up who is driving all of the cars - sometimes animals, sometimes humans but it makes for a really wonderful thing to look at.  My son can't get enough of it and I've been reading/rapping the book to him every night for the past six days.  He loves the pictures, and the last line of the book is "they go to rest" and I always whisper it, since it is a picture of a cars "sleeping" in their garages.  My son, now also whispers it and it is so fun to see.

This book simply details in rhyme, types of cars, what they do, where they go, why they are useful and is just a really fun book both to the eyes and to the ears.

Hardcover


Paperback