One of the first story books that we bought for E is The Gruffalo. I kept a mental note of this title back when I was working at a bookstore. Almost every other day, someone would ask if we have Julia Donaldson's books especially The Gruffalo so it went on my mental list of books to read to my kids if I were to have any.
When E was younger, he didn't use to like to listen to the story that much, instead he love to point at stuff, still very much like to do so but lately he has moments when he just wants me to read to him. He would sit very quietly and listen to me. It's been such a change in him, it's been quiet nice. Although it can get tiring after the fifth book in a row :)
So on to Julia Donaldson's books.
We introduced them to E when he was quite young, when he wasn't aware of things but we just read to him. We have accumulated quite a lot of Julia Donaldson's books over the year. Some we did borrow from the library to check out the stories before buying them.
These are our current collection of JD’s books. most recent favourite is The Gruffalo.
The Gruffalo in Hebrew. Makes it easier for O to read to E for the rhymes.
The Gruffalo’s Child. Our most recent purchase for JD’s books as E is currently so into The Gruffalo. We did borrow it from the library when E was younger and thought that buying it could go wait.
I think the fun part of the books are the rhymes(besides the illustrations or the stories). As you read, you kind of develop a tone or tune and it makes it fun for the baby or toddler. Sometimes when we are outside, I would recite a line or two from the book we have been reading recently and E would smile because he recognised not only the words but I think mostly the tone of my voice. It’s in that sing-song voice and I think it does help in getting E to listen to the story. I also realised I do have different tones for different books and the rhymes do help to make reading the same book over and over more fun :)
I’ll have another post for more of books with stories soon.
till next time, M