Clap Your Hands - Finger Rhymes by Sarah Hayes and Toni Goffe

Poetry is a wonderful way to introduce young children to the idea of rhyme and rhythm. Poems can also incorporate counting and alphabet themes that help children to learn numbers and letters. Read aloud, children can be encouraged to join in as soon as they become familiar with the words. That's something they are likely to do surprisingly quickly.

If you are looking for a collection of short rhymes, Clap Your Hands – Finger Rhymes by Sarah Hayes and Toni Goffe is an anthology of both modern and traditional rhymes, some to be read aloud and some that can be sung. Along with each rhyme comes a series of colorful illustrations that demonstrate actions using the fingers that children can do whilst the rhymes are read or sung. Some involve counting, forwards or backwards, whereas others require using fingers and thumbs to make a circle or a triangle, for example, or to imitate 'incey wincey spider' climbing up the water spout. Here's an example of the kind of rhyme you will find in this book:

'Five fat peas in a pea-pod pressed.

One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.

They grew and grew and did not stop,

Until one day the pod went POP!'

We meet monkey-devouring alligators and witches snapping up pumpkins to make a pie, but even though the pumpkins are personified as little boys and girls sitting on a wall, I never find that children feel threatened by these scary characters that turn up in rhymes and stories. They perhaps enjoy the contrast with the more comforting ideas of baking cakes or cuddling rabbits.

As well as counting forwards and backwards, there are one or two rhymes that could be used to introduce addition and subtraction to young children. (I currently teach a boy approaching his fourth birthday who can count backwards from one hundred and tell me that five plus two equals seven, so don't underestimate pre-school children!) As you read 'Ten galloping horses came through the town, Five were white and five were brown', you can ask the child to put up five fingers on one hand then five on the other and count that they make ten altogether. A few pages later, in 'Chook, Chook...', we meet Mrs Hen; she has ten chickens, four of which are yellow, four are brown, and two are speckled red. So we can deduce that four plus four plus two make ten.

Not all the poems have to be such serious hard work, of course. One simply asks if you would like a cookie, a piece of pie, or a candy stick; another tells us about a turtle who lived in a box and swam in a puddle. The children in the illustrations almost always have beaming smiles, and we see blue-spotted white horses, stripy bees and cats, and stern policemen bowing to each other as they meet in a lane. There is plenty for a young child who is being read to to look at here.

If you want ideas for rhymes and songs, especially those involving numbers, this is an excellent book to use. Unfortunately it seems to be a little hard to get hold of now; I borrowed a paperback edition from the library, but there is a hardback edition available on Amazon Marketplace. Definitely recommended to enjoy with toddlers up to five-year-olds.

Clap Your Hands – Finger Rhymes

by Sarah Hayes and Toni Goffe

Lothrop Lee and Shepard

Hardback, 29 pages

ISBN 074451231X

Price from £3.68 on Amazon Marketplace

ZZZZZ A Book of Sleep - Il Sung Na

ZZZZZ A Book of Sleep is a picture book for the very young, suitable for bedtime, but not an actual story. Il Sung Na begins by pointing out that when it grows dark everyone goes to sleep except for the owl, shown here staring as he sits on a branch in front of a full moon.

Over the next few pages, double-spread illustrations show us that not all creatures sleep in the same way. Koala bears sleep in peace and quiet, whilst elephants snore noisily through their trunks. There are creatures that sleep standing up, and whales that sleep while they are swimming. We see birds sleeping with one eye open (watching what the owl is up to), and fish that keep both eyes open and don't even blink. Giraffes are pictured sleeping alone, resting their heads on cloud pillows, whereas penguins huddle up when they go to sleep to keep out the cold.

The book ends when all the creatures wake up at sunrise, apart from the owl, of course, who then needs to go to sleep until the sun sets again.

Il Sung Na has illustrated his book in a delightful way; my only reservation is that, since the scenes are set at night, the backgrounds are of necessity rather dark and might not be too appealing to young children. To alleviate this, Il Sung Na has decorated many of his creatures in pastel shades and floral patterns. The last two sets of double pages are set in bright sunshine, however. I particularly liked the scene showing all the animals waking up, where a row of birds perch on the giraffes neck, the Koala bear and her baby cling to the elephant's trunk and the penguins slide down the whale's forehead.

The text is in a very clear, large font, and there are never more than four lines to a page – in fact there is only one line on several pages. As well as being perfect for reading aloud to the very young, this could be a suitable book for young independent readers who are still gaining confidence and don't want to be put off by whole pages of text. There is a certain amount of repetition, and the illustrations will give clues to help in deciphering the words.

This is of course an excellent book for learning about the habits of various animals and for discussing the fact that there are so many different ways that a creature might sleep. I read it aloud to a group of three- to four-year-olds and as we went through the book I asked them to pretend to go to sleep with one eye open, then with both eyes open but without blinking. Not as easy as it sounds, they soon discovered.

For very young children this is obviously a picture book that lends itself perfectly to bedtime reading, and parents will hope that with all this talk of sleep their little ones will soon drop off. The paperback is perhaps a little expensive, but there is also a board-book version for £3.99.

ZZZZZ A Book of Sleep

by Il Sung Na

Meadowside Children's Books, 2007

Paperback,

ISBN 9781845392703

Price £5.99

Doing the Animal Bop - J. Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner

Picture books often have a simple story line with a strong rhythm and plenty rhyming words: Doing the Animal Bop by J. Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner begins 'If you like to dance and you sometimes sing, Why don't you do the animal thing?' It is hard for children to resist the urge when this is read aloud to get up and try to move in the same way as each animal that appears in these pages, jiggling and jiving, waddling like a duck or stomping like a rhino.

This is not really a story at all, more of a poem that introduces a series of animals, one on each double page, concentrating on the way they move and the sounds they make. As well as rhyme, there is onomatopoeia in the 'Craak, craak, craak' of the penguin song, and alliteration in the 'flim-flam flutter of the ostrich flounce' or the monkeys' 'jive and jiggle'. The hissing of the snake is exaggerated in the line 'you can ssssssing this ssssssong'. The chickens peck and cluck whilst the rhinos roar and rage.

On the final pages the line 'so let's end up with a great big mooo!' (because the cow can only chew) becomes so familiar that children love to join in. There is after that one more double-page illustration of the animals in silhouette dancing off into the night under the pink stars in the dark blue sky. It's as though they are off to party all night.

Both rhyme and rhythm come through in no uncertain terms, creating a lively pace. This is an ideal book to encourage children to get up and move, exercising and trying to stomp, waddle, jive or slither like a snake. You can imagine that it's probably not the best bedtime story, unless you want your child to run off a little more energy before slipping under the covers.

I absolutely love the use of colour in Lindsey Gardiner's illustrations. The backgrounds in particular are striking, and all are different colours. A pink elephant trudges along against an orange background, whilst a pale green lizard moves on a salmon pink ground. The ostrich seems to have borrowed Winnie the Witch's stripy tights, bouncing and flouncing on a deep pink background. In each picture there is a tiny mouse with a yellow tummy and tail; we meet it right at the beginning, and children can have fun spotting where it is on each page throughout the book, as it frequently tries to imitate the other animals.

This is a feast of language and colour, and a delightful way of teaching very young children about the sounds and movements of different animals. Recognising rhyming words is said to be a fundamental precursor to reading, so that is one more reason to make this an ideal book to read aloud, perhaps to children as young as two. It may not be the easiest book for a young reader to tackle, unless a particularly confident one is looking for a challenge. If you are looking for a book that will impart a love of the sounds of words to your children and at the same time get them out of their seats, this could be the ideal one.

Doing the Animal Bop

J. Ormerod and Lindsey Gardiner

Oxford University Press

Paperback, 32 pages

ISBN 0192791400

Price £5.99 (Amazon £4.49)

But excuse me that is my book - Lauren Child

Charlie and Lola are off to the library, and Lola announces that she must borrow her favourite book, 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies'. When Charlie comments that Dad took it out for her last time and the time before that, Lola explains that it's the best book because 'the bugs are quite buggy and the butterflies are really beautiful and the beetles are... very silly'.

Once they are at the library, big brother Charlie does his utmost to keep Lola quiet and suggests she look for her special book amongst all the books beginning with B. Lola is quite distraught when she can't find it, and she won't accept Charlie's explanation that someone must have borrowed it. She considers it to be her book. Charlie tries to persuade her to have a look at a few other books, but Lola protests that the one about the Romans has too many big words and the pop-up book with cherry blossom rain just isn't funny. Charlie realises that he will have to find an animal book that will make her laugh, and he shows her 'Cheetahs and Chimpanzees'.

Just then, Lola is shocked to see a girl walking off with 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies'. She finds it hard to accept that anyone else can take it out. She has no choice but to give 'Cheetahs and Chimpanzees' a go, and thankfully she finds it to be wonderful. In fact, she says it has the best pictures ever and thinks the chimps are very funny. Charlie must have breathed a big sigh of relief.

This may not be the best or most popular of Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola books, but it is the perfect one to introduce a young child to the idea that when you bring a book home from the library it doesn't actually belong to you. It is also ideal for perhaps persuading your son and daughter to be open minded and try different books or toys, particularly when one they are obsessed with is lost or broken. They might discover something even better when they try something new.

Lauren Child illustrates all her stories herself in her distinctive style. She uses vibrant colours throughout, and the page where Lola talks about her favourite book is dotted with patterned butterflies and a row of wide-eyed bugs marching along. When she finally looks at 'Cheetahs and Chimpanzees', Child uses photo-montage to show her standing in a jungle setting with the book while a friendly grinning monkey watches her from each side.

The text is usually superimposed on the illustrations, and on one or two pages in appears in mauve or pale blue on a black background. Sometimes lines of text curve around the pictures, and the font can vary in size to emphasize particular words or phrases. In some instances, the individual letters of a word jiggle playfully up and down. Lauren Child has Lola speaking at times in an amusing, ungrammatical way that might be typical of a young child, for example when she says that 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies' is a 'very great and extremely very interesting' book.

While 'But excuse me that is my book' is an ideal book to read aloud, the creative use of the text does not make it an easy one for a child that is just learning to read. An older sibling, however, who is a confident reader, would probably enjoy reading this to a brother or sister. Many of them are likely to identify with Charlie and not find the book too childish.

I often read picture books aloud to groups of children aged three and four, and if I give them a choice I almost always find that a Charlie and Lola book is asked for. This one is unlikely to appeal to two-year-olds, but might still be approved of by children of five or six. Although it may not be the best in the series, I don't think you can go wrong borrowing a Charlie and Lola story from the library and then deciding if it is worth buying. If I have grandchildren one day, I hope I will be able to enjoy reading 'But excuse me that is my book' aloud to them.

But excuse me that is my book

Lauren Child

Paperback, 32 pages

Puffin 2006

ISBN 0141500530

Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.99)

Avocado Baby - John Burningham

Mr and Mrs Hargraves, as well as their son and daughter, are not the strongest specimens of the human race so they naturally hope the newest addition to the family will prove to be more robust. After the baby is born, however, Mrs Hargraves has a lot of difficulty feeding it and indeed finding any sort of food that it likes.

Poor Mrs Hargraves is eventually driven to tears, but her son and daughter notice an avocado pear in the fruit bowl and suggest their mother feed it to their baby brother. The mystery is that nobody knows how the avocado got there, as the Hargraves certainly hadn't bought it. In her desperation, however, Mrs Hargraves cuts it in half, mashes it up and feeds it to the baby. Since he eats it all, Mrs Hargraves continues to give him avocado pear every day. The baby soon becomes so strong that he is able to break out of his high chair and pull a cartload of children up a hill.

One night the baby hears a burglar in the house; he gets hold of a broom and chases the terrified burglar away. After that the baby helps with carrying shopping, moving furniture and pushing the family car with everyone in it. The baby is thankfully able to deal with two bullies who attack his brother and sister while they are walking him in the park. The baby simply picks them up and throws them into the pond. The story ends with a picture of the baby having a rest in his carry-cot and the news that he continues to get stronger eating avocado pears.

John Burningham's stories are generally rather unusual, and Avocado Baby does seem a little strange as a young children's book. There is, however, quite a bit a humour in the story, and young children will doubtless be delighted by the idea of a baby moving a piano or picking up a bully in each hand. Parents who have had problems feeding their children will appreciate Mrs Hargraves' desperation as well as her relief when her baby wolfs down that first avocado pear and then starts to become stronger by the day. It is good to see the older siblings playing their part too, and of course being protected by the astonishing baby.

Burningham illustrates his books himself, and all except one of the pictures here are in full colour. The backgrounds are almost all white, so there is no difficulty with reading the text. The colours used are bright and varied which I think is important in a young children's book. One page, where Mrs Hargraves is shown trying to feed the baby, is set out like a comic strip with a series of pictures. We see the baby angrily pushing the plate away, as well as Mrs Hargraves attempting to feed him in the bath and while he is standing up in his cot. She is at her wits' end and will try anything. This is a page with no text that could generate discussions about the various scenarios, considering the feeding problem from both the baby's and the mother's point of view. Favourite illustrations are likely to be the full-page one of the burglar dropping his swag bag when he sees the baby brandishing a broom behind him, or the double-page spread of the two bullies landing in the pond with an almighty splash that disturbs the poor ducks and a fish.

The endpapers at both the front and back of the book show a double-page spread of an avocado plant covered with miniature babies in various colourful outfits. Some are perched on leaves while others appear to be performing gymnastics. This is a delightful illustration and again could be an inspiration for a conversation about what the babies are doing.

The text is in a particularly large and clear font and is always on a white background. There are never more than eight lines on a single page, usually less, and sometimes the text is broken up into smaller sections with illustrations in between. This is of course a book that is intended to be read aloud to very young children, but because of the clarity and the lack of long passages of text, it might also be suitable for young independent readers.

I didn't find 'Avocado Baby' to be such an outstanding book as John Burningham's 'Cloudland', either visually or in terms of the story. The ending of 'Avocado Baby' is perhaps a bit of an anticlimax, as we are simply told that things carried on as they were. I would, however, definitely recommend this as a book to borrow from the library, and Amazon's current price of £3.94 seems a reasonable one. I don't know if any miraculously strong, avocado-eating babies have come about as a result of having this book read aloud, but I would recommend it as an unusual story that has a fair amount of humour that will appeal to most young children.

Avocado Baby

John Burningham

Paperback, 32 pages

Red Fox, 1994

ISBN 9780099200611

Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.94)

The Rattletrap Car - Phyllis Root and Jill Barton

During the National Year of Reading, I thought I should look for some different books to read aloud at the nursery where I work. I found just the book to inspire me at my local library: Rattletrap Car, by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Jill Barton.

Why did it take me so long to discover this wonderful book? What if I never had? My experience of the English language would have been so much the poorer. How have I been working with young children for so long and not known of the existence of razzleberry dazzleberry snazzleberry fizz? Thankfully now I do, and I also understand to what uses chocolate marshmallow fudge delight can be put.

The story of Rattletrap Car revolves around Junie, Jakie, baby and Dad. Mum is not mentioned at all, but they seem to muddle through without her. The story starts as Dad is tending to the chickens on their farm. A pig looks on, and Junie, Jakie and the baby, sitting on the ground and feeling the heat, decide that it would be a good idea to go to the lake. Dad, however, surveys their rattletrap car and is concerned that 'it doesn't go fast and it doesn't go far'. The children aren't taking no for an answer, however, although Junie and Jakie are polite enough to say 'Please, please, please!' Baby just cries out 'Go!'

Dad knows he must give it a try, so he packs the aforementioned fizz and fudge delight. Junie brings her enormous beach-ball, and Jakie a surf-board that's about twice as long as he is tall. Baby naturally has a 'three-speed, wind-up, paddle-wheel boat'.

As their journey begins, we are treated to a feast of onomatopoeia: 'Clinkety clankety bing bang pop!' Then disaster number one strikes as a tyre goes flat. Junie is not fazed; she replaces the flat tyre with her beach ball, sticking it in place with chocolate marshmallow fudge delight. It's the obvious thing to do.

Off they go again, 'clinkety clankety', but every so often another part of the car falls off. No problem: they improvise and replace it with one of the other things they have brought along. Each time they get going again, we are treated to another burst of onomatopoeia, be it 'wappity bappity', 'fizzelly sizzelly', 'flippita fluppita', or a combination thereof.

If you want to know whether or not the car survived the journey all the way to the lake and home again, I'm sorry, but you will just have to read the book for yourself.

This is an amazing book to read aloud to young children. The lettering is in red in a large font, but I wouldn't recommend it for emergent readers as they might get a complex struggling with words such as 'bappity', 'rattletrap' or 'bumpety'. It will be as much a delight for most adults as for children, so it is a book to be enjoyed together, savouring the wonderful sounds that Phyllis Root has conjured up here. This is magical language.

Jill Barton's colourful illustrations fill every page and make this book a visual treasure as much as a linguistic one. A little flock of sheep comes along to gaze dumbfounded at one of the problems the family is having, and rabbits look on under a moonlit sky at the end of the story.

This is one book that Dads who take the children out on their own for the day can have a great laugh over. Not being a driver or a mechanic myself, I cannot vouch for the solutions the family finds for their broken car, but I think I can safely say don't try this on your way to the lake when your car breaks down...

For the joy of the language and the drawings, as well as the idea of using your imagination and improvising when things go wrong, this is a book that will provide entertainment again and again. It also demonstrates how family members can work together to overcome obstacles and not give up the minute a problem arises. Although aimed at young children, I think anyone who can read English and has a love of language and books should read this one.

Rattletrap Car

by Phyllis Root

illustrated by Jill Barton

Walker Books, 2002

Paperback, 40 pages

ISBN 0744589320

Peace at Last - Jill Murphy

Jill Murphy's 'Peace at Last' is the story of Mr Bear's quest for a quiet night's sleep. The book appears to feature the three bears of Goldilocks fame: Mr Bear, Mrs Bear and Baby Bear, who are first seen at the end of the day, very sleepy, then making their way up the stairs to bed.

Mrs Bear falls asleep straight away, but she begins to snore heavily and sleep therefore eludes Mr Bear. He decides to go and spend the night in his son's room, but finds Baby Bear still wide awake, playing aeroplanes and making 'NYAAOW' noises. So it's back downstairs for Mr Bear, where he goes from the living-room to the kitchen to the garden, but each place has its annoying noises that foil his attempts to go to sleep. He eventually tries the car, finds it cold and uncomfortable but begins to drift off. Almost immediately, the sound of the birds and the strong sunshine disturb him. He goes back to his own bed where he does find 'Peace at Last' as Mrs Bear has stopped snoring. But how much time is left before the alarm clock rings?

Mrs Bear brings her husband a 'nice cup of tea', unaware of his sleepless night. Baby Bear is of course full of beans first thing in the morning, and jumps on his parents' bed, brandishing the post. Poor Mr Bear is not amused.

Although sleepless nights are perhaps a problem that affects adults more than children, this is a good book to enjoy reading aloud together, and young children find the idea of trying to sleep in the garden or the kitchen amusing enough. I've recently read this story to a small group of four-year-olds and asked them afterwards to try to remember all the different places where Mr Bear tried to go to sleep and what noise disturbed him in each of those places. I was impressed that they remembered the snoring, the aeroplane noises, the cuckoo clock, the drip of a leaky tap, the hum of the fridge, the sound of the animals and birds in the garden, everything in fact except for the alarm clock.

Jill Murphy's illustrations for her picture books are always of the highest standard and have obviously had a great deal of time, thought and care devoted to them. My only comment on the illustrations in 'Peace at Last' is that they are of necessity all in rather gloomy colours because the story takes place during the night. They do not lack in quality in any way, but they may not appeal to young children quite as much as more brightly coloured pictures would.

The full-page illustrations are in each case on the right-hand-side of a double page, with a small amount of text and one or two miniature black-and-white drawings adding information on the facing left-hand page. One or two of the left-hand pages actually feature white text on a black background to emphasise the idea that the story takes place at night.

'Peace at Last' is primarily a story to be read aloud to children aged from around two-and-a-half to five-years-old. As the amount of text on each page is not too daunting and the facing illustrations give obvious clues as to what is happening, this might make a suitable book for a young reader aged five to seven who is gaining in confidence. I have recently said that it is hard to go wrong with David Melling, and I would certainly say the same about Jill Murphy.

Peace at Last

by Jill Murphy

Macmillan Children's Books, 2007

Paperback, 36 pages

ISBN 0230015484

Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.59)