Review Round-Up: Books for Beginning Readers, January 2016

Easy Readers

Both Jean Little Library and Kids Book a Day featured Cybils finalist In, Over, and On the Farm this month. Of the series, Jennifer of Jean Little Library says, " [It] is successful because it stands on its own and doesn't try to imitate other popular series." Janet from Kids Book a Day also compliments the book, pointing out that it "would be a fun read-aloud to young children as well as a good first book for emergent readers to try on their own."

Toon Books also received some attention this month. Jean Little Library reviewed 2016 Batchelder Honor book, Written and Drawn by Henrietta, calling it "a stunning work of graphic art" but questioning whether it works as an easy reader. Meanwhile, Sal's Fiction Addiction reviewed Flop to the Top, saying "The adults who read it to children will be as entertained as their children are ... the best kind of praise, for sure!"

Other reviews included Jean Little Library's posts on I Will Take a Nap and Katie Fry Private Eye: The Lost Kitten, Flying Off My Bookshelf's reviews of Sydney and Simon: Full STEAM Ahead and Come Back, Ben, Sal's Fiction Addiction's post on Ballet Cat: The Totally Secret Secret, and a post from Becky's Book Reviews on Best Friends Wear Pink Tutus.

Chapter Books

There were a few Cybils finalists represented among the chapter book reviews I read this month. Geo Librarian reviewed Big Bad Detective Agency, citing its silliness as one of its strengths, while Jean Little Library reviewed both The Case of the Snack Snatcher and Dory and the Real True Friend.

Jean Little Library had several other chapter book reviews as well: The Friendship Garden: Green Thumbs Up!, Tales from Maple Ridge: Logan Pryce Makes a Mess, Puppy Pirates: Stowaway and Puppy Pirates: X Marks the Spot, and a review on its sister blog, Flying Off My Bookshelf, of Little Rhino: My New Team.

There were also a few non-fiction chapter book reviews this month. Geo Librarian reviewed two from National Geographic: Hoops to Hippos and Hoot, Hoot, Hooray! Here at Story Time Secrets, I also reviewed a whole series of non-fiction chapter book titles: Tomie dePaola's memoir, 26 Fairmount Avenue, and two sets of its sequels.

Mom Read It reviewed books from three different series, all published by Scholastic. Eerie Elementary: Recess is a Jungle and Stella and the Night Sprites: Knit-Knotters are both new titles from the Branches imprint, and Paloma (which just came out on Tuesday!) is the third book in the Shelter Pet Squad series.

Other chapter book reviews from this month are below:

• Diva and Flea, reviewed by Kids Book a Day
• Lola Levine is Not Mean, reviewed by Kids Book a Day
• Mouse Scouts Books 1 and 2, reviewed by Jen Robinson's Book Page
• The Miniature World of Marvin and James and James to the Rescue, reviewed by Geo Librarian
• Rider Woofson: The Case of the Missing Tiger's Eye

Five Tips for Watching Videos with Toddlers (Plus a List of Our Favorites!)

In September 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics made some changes to its guidelines about screen time for young children. One of the new guidelines states that "Co-engagement counts" and that "For infants and toddlers, co-viewing is essential." I started allowing Little Miss Muffet (now 2) to have a very small amount of screen time sometime between 18 and 24 months of age. Today I want to share some tips that have helped me make the most of co-viewing videos with her.

1. Choose videos with minimal commentary. Not all, but many of the first videos I watched with Little Miss Muffet were nature videos, which were either silent, except for the sounds the animals naturally made, or set to instrumental music.  The benefit of the limited soundtrack is that I could make my own comments about what we were seeing on the screen without having to pause the video or talk over a narrator. Because I was directing the commentary, I could then draw Miss Muffet's attention to details I knew would especially interest her, or to new information I wanted her to learn.
    
   
2. Connect each viewing session with a book or activity. Watching random videos might have some educational value, but it's even more likely that your child will learn something if you watch videos with a specific purpose in mind. When Little Miss Muffet was really into Jim Arnosky's Little Lions, we started watching this video about lion cubs at the San Diego Zoo. Now she knows what they eat and which toys they like to play with. When the National Zoo's panda cub was born, we would check in on the Panda Cam a couple of times a day to see what the cub was doing. Now that Miss Muffet's favorite book is Owl Babies, we like to watch the video adaptation, too, and this has really contributed to her memorizing almost the entire story word for word. You don't need to have an entire lesson plan  to accompany a video, but even just a simple book, craft, or game should be enough to reinforce the video content your child consumes.
3. Interact with content. Watching a video is never a passive experience for Miss Muffet. We discuss everything that is happening on the screen. We identify colors and animals. We count how many birds are in the sky, or how many tusks an elephant has. We dance along with Michael Rosen's rendition of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and identify the speaker of each line of dialogue in Owl Babies. Very occasionally, she will be allowed to sit alone and watch a video, but it's always one we have seen before, and usually, she will do at least some of what I have modeled for her even if I am in the next room and not directly involved in the presentation. 
4. Set limits. This is another recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics. For me, setting limits means we don't watch videos endlessly without a plan. I will usually select a number of videos that we will watch, or a set amount of time that we will spend watching. Typically, the maximum number of videos we watch in one sitting is three, and I doubt we have ever watched more than 20 minutes total in a single day. She asks for screen time much more often, but I stand firm in my limitations and suggest other activities instead. Videos are provided solely at my discretion, and never simply because she wants to watch one.
   
   
5. Build a playlist. Always pre-screen videos before sharing them with your child and plan how you will use them. I usually do this during nap time. I search for videos on topics that we have been discussing a lot, or of books that we especially like and save them for later viewing. This way, I am never scrambling to find appropriate content while Miss Muffet is watching, and I can also anticipate what is coming in the video as we're viewing it so I can tailor my commentary accordingly. By building a playlist ahead of time, I always know that I am sharing content of value that does not include any age-inappropriate material.

Little Miss Muffet's favorite YouTube videos are below:

• Sesame Street: African Alphabet with Kermit
  
• Owl Babies - Picture Book Animation
• Michael Rosen performs We're Going on a Bear Hunt
• San Diego Zoo Kids - Lion Cubs
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Bill Martin Reads Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• San Diego Zoo Kids - Elephant Care
• Cow Videos for Children, More Cows for Kids
• Horses for Kids - Horse Videos for Children
• Travel for Kids | Monkeys Playing - San Diego Zoo
• A blue peacock opening his tail up close to the camera

Do you watch videos with your kids? Which are your favorites? What works for you? Please share below! 

Reading with Little Miss Muffet and Little Bo Peep, January 2016

We have been snowed in for the last few days, and before that we had a good cold spell, so we have had lots of time to cuddle up with good books. Here's what Miss Muffet and Bo Peep enjoyed in January.

Busting Boredom with Books

Little Bo Peep (just turning 4 months) is getting to the age now where she is beginning to desire entertainment in addition to bottles, snuggles, and clean diapers. When she is fussing and nothing else seems to comfort her, it usually works to give her a book to look at. If she's lying on the floor, I will stand up Black and White by Tana Hoban, or the Alphaprints ABC book she got for Christmas and just let her take in the images on the pages. She kicks her legs, coos, and even reaches out to try to knock the book over. It's so nice to see even a small baby beginning to have her own relationship with books.

Singable Picture Books

Little Miss Muffet (age 2 years, 2 months) has suddenly started to demand that all picture books be sung, whether they have a tune or not. Rather than start making up tunes for every book under the sun, we have been borrowing a lot of singable picture books from the library - and revisiting the ones in our own collection - to satisfy this new fascination. Here are some titles we have recently enjoyed:

• The Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz
• The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort 
• Row Row Row Your Boat by Iza Trapani 
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star illustrated by Julia Noonan
• Lullaby and Good Night by Julie Downing 
• Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop by Lisa Shulman and Ashley Wolff
• Mockingbird by Allan Ahlberg and Paul Howard
• Mary Wore Her Red Dress and Henry Wore His Green Sneakers by Merle Peek
• Hush Little Baby by Margot Zemach

We borrowed Lullaby and Good Night from the library, but it has become such a special favorite that we had to order a copy of our own. It has beautiful illustrations, and the music for each lullaby is worked into the pictures. It also just happened to have a version of I See the Moon, which is a song we already love from Marylee's 1, 2, 3 Sing with Me! album, so it was an instant hit with Miss Muffet - and with me, too.

Highlights High Five

Last year, we had a subscription to Highlights Hello, and we loved it! I saved all the back issues to share with Little Bo Peep, but now, thanks to Grandma, we have a new subscription to Highlights High Five for the new year. The stories are a bit longer, and there are more of them, and the magazine also includes activities to do at home, as well as more complicated hidden pictures puzzles. Miss Muffet loves to flip through her "manganize" all "by self" and she even tries to follow along with the audio version, though it often moves to the next page before she is ready and she does not turn the page as directed. The hidden pictures are so far too difficult without a lot of help, but the stories and rhymes are just right. I look forward to watching her learn to master the new activities in the coming months!

The Reading with Little Miss Muffet featured started last January. Click here to see what she was reading way back when.

Milestones Board Books

Babies reach many milestones during the first two years of life. The board books on this list are great for supporting and celebrating these important achievements.

Baby Pig Pig Walks by David McPhail (ISBN: 9781580895965) 
Baby Pig Pig Talks by David McPhail (ISBN: 9781580895972)

David McPhail's character from picture books such as Pig Pig Grows Up and Pig Pig Gets a Job is just a toddler in these board books. Baby Pig Pig takes a while to get the hang of walking, but when he finally figures it out, he runs right to the kitchen to hug his mama. When he's learning to talk, his mother teaches him many words, which he slowly begins to repeat until finally he says her name loud and clear. 

Little Movers series by Carol Thompson 
These four books feature a diverse cast of babies - some with disabilities - showing off their gross motor skills. There are four titles in this series: One, Two, Three...Jump!, One, Two, Three... Run!, One, Two, Three... Climb! , and One, Two, Three...Crawl! (which I reviewed here.)

 

Happy, Healthy Baby series by  Elizabeth Verdick and Marjorie Lisovskis

The six books in this series highlight all of the things baby do, using photographs of real infants to illustrate each skill. The titles are: Play, Rest, Cuddle, Eat, Move, and Reach. 

Spoonful by Benoit Marchon (ISBN: 9780547893136)

Whether your little one is just starting solid foods or learning to use a spoon independently, he or she will be delighted by  this book, in which a baby gives a spoonful of food to everyone from the fish to the picture on the wall.