Pre-School Book Review

This is a Book Week guest post from Vickie at Never Found the Plot.

What makes a good book for pre-schoolers?

Three things mainly:

• colour and lots of it, the brighter the better
• noises, accents, silly voices
• actions.

These three things to me are what I watch all the children I read for being interested in books. Most books can be adapted by a reader but for instant captivation I feel the three above things in a book draw children in with little effort from the reader.

You of course what to get the children involved in the reading process and flap and pull books always do this with 18-month plus children and to me the books that win this category every time would be ‘Maisy’ books. Both of my sons have loved these books. The way Lucy Collins has written these books with simple child like games incorporated is a winner in this house with Where is Maisy? being a winner every time.

The colours, simple language and opportunity to put plenty of different voices to each character behind each flap had my children hooked from the first read. The great thing I found with Maisy books also was our local library has them in different languages so my boys learned simple words in French because they knew and trusted the characters so picked up the words easier.

Other books that are always a winner in this house are Eric Carle books. Yes, we all adore The Hungry Caterpillar, however another, book of his that we love is From Head to Toe:

This book has you doing actions and noises on every page, so again the children become captivated and are always asking for it again and again.

We are of course huge Juila Donaldson fans in this house. Who isn’t? The way she uses rhyme in each one of her stories makes it so easy to read and listen to that you are eagerly await her next release. As a family we were first introduced to Room on a Broom, which will always stay close to mine and my eldest son’s heart, but a close second is Monkey Puzzle.

Along with Axel Scheffler’s amazing illustrations it makes for a fab read and a chance to act silly and with the happy ending my sons love it every time we read it.

Other authors that we love in this house include:

• David Mckee – The Elmer Range
• Jez Alborough
• Sam Lloyd – The Boris series, a puppet book.
• Rob Campbell – Dear Zoo

You can find Vickie at her blog and on Twitter.