On Moppet's Bookshelf - 1

On account of owning two parents who lose all sense of proportion when in the vicinity of a bookstore, Moppet's book collection has been expanding prodigiously. We've been buying her a wide variety of books, and she seems to be quite happy to try them all out.

Like the music charts, her favourites move up and down from week to week. Some books that have had a fair amount of staying power in the charts so far are:

Look! There's Elmer
This is a really cool book, with peepholes on each page through which you can see a multi-coloured patch that might be Elmer. When you turn the page, you find that it's not him, but a parasol, a ball, a tent, etc. Moppet has great fun poking her finger through the peepholes and finding what's on the other side. We've even got a silly dance we do when we get to the last page and finally find Elmer. "We found Elmer, we found Elmer," we chant, waving our arms and wiggling our bums. The only problem is that this is not a board book, so the peepholes are getting a little ragged, what with all the excited little fingers poking through them so often. If this book stays in the charts, we may need to get another copy.

The Eye Book
Another classic Dr Seuss (writing as Theo LeSieg, since it's been illustrated by Joe Mathieu). With this one, I think it's the illustrations rather than the text that have caught her fancy. There's not much to the text, but she really enjoys pointing out the huge liquid eyes of the little protagonist (and nose and mouth while she's at it) and also naming all the things he sees.

The other Seuss book that remains a firm favourite is The Shape of Me and Other Stuff that I've mentioned before. This one has been read so much that it has literally disintegrated. Emergency surgery involving glue and weights has given it a fresh lease of life, but the strain is clearly showing.

Barney's Colour Train
I picked this up on our India trip for just 50 rupees (one more reason to miss home - you don't get inexpensive children's books here) and Moppet took to it immediately although she hadn't even seen Barney at the time. The text is in rather clunky rhyme and is not easy to read aloud, but the concept is nice. Each compartment of Barney's colour train is a different colour with matching and unusual cargo. We don't read this book as much as go through every page pointing out the various things of colour on it.

There are lots more books I could mention (I'm hard to shut up on the subject of books) but shamelessly stealing Kodi's Mom's wonderful idea, I'm making On Moppet's Bookshelf a series that I will update as and when we have new entries in our charts (or when I am out of ideas for a new post!)

Apart from Kodi's list, do also check out Chip's list of his favourite books. For more great reviews on children's books for all ages, hop on over to Saffron Tree.