What we’re reading this week, 1st May

These are the books that my two littles, aged two and four, have read this week.

Monster in Trucks, by Laura Baker and Nina Dzyvulska, Happy Yak
This book is such a lot of fun, especially for my littles who love anything and everything with wheels. It’s a really fun book to read out loud, as the words and rhyme are really delightful.

The font and font size are really great for little ones to easily read, but is also a good size for my visually-impaired 4 year old to read easily too. Even though the text is positioned as part of the overall design, which can sometimes can be a legibility issue for someone with low vision, this is done really well by placing the text clearly on high colour contrast backgrounds within the overall illustrations. This also helps draw the eye to parts of the action in the illustration, which helps little eyes know where to focus.

There are so many fun details to spot in the illustrations too, in particular my little one loves spotting the ladybird on each spread - they literally jump across my knee to point them out (‘birdybirds’ are their particular favourite at moment).

Scoot, by Jim Smith and Katie Blackburn, Faber and Faber

We picked this up from the library at the beginning of the week. Scooters are a way of life for my two little ones, so this book is perfect. The text is fun to say out loud, with an easy rhyming scheme and it also has a perfect sprinkling of silly to make them giggle.

Again, I chose this because of the bold, simple vector illustrations, which are engaging not only to little eyes, but are easy to focus on for low vision eyes too. For bedtime stories, I try to choose books that have simple text and clear, bold images as it is easier on tired eyes and minds at the end of the day - it seems to work really well with my two at the moment.

Ergo, by Alexis Deacon, illustrated by Viviane Schwarz, Walker Books

Since Easter, my eldest has been obsessed with eggs of both the chocolate variety and cute things hatching from them. Every night, they get under the covers and pretend to hatch out as a different animal each night.

So when I saw this book on the shelf at the library, with the familiar and beautiful illustrations from Viviane Schwarz (‘There Are Cats in this Book’ is a firm favourite of mine), I knew this would be a hit.

It is such a sweet and lovely take on the big questions that curious toddlers start to ask at this stage as they learn and contemplate the world around them. The blurb says it best:

”Ergo woke up and set off to explore the world.
Soon, she found EVERYTHING.
AM I THE WORLD? she thought. It was a big thought.”

It is a fun and adorable read, perfect for the little ones who are constantly asking ‘Why?’, ‘Where'?’, ‘Who?’, ‘How?’ and then‘Why?’ again.

The Kingdom of Nothing, by Ronald Wohlman, illustrated by Dylan Hewitt, Frances Lincoln

Jumping (albeit loosely) on the theme of the moment, the Corrie-Nash, we picked this from the library. There has been much talk and questions about the King and royalty in our home recently; my littles have declared themselves as Sir King of Strawberry Squares and King Chocolate Cake.

The simple and bold illustrations were obviously a draw to this book, but also I knew ‘nothing’ would be precisely the sort of thing that would make them giggle, and with the addition of Daddy’s assortment of silly voices this book was a hit.

The black text on a brilliant blue background has proved to be challenging to my biggest little to see in certain lights, or when eyes are tired, but we’ve got around this issue by reading, or performing, this book out loud.

What the Ladybird Heard, Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, Macmillan

An absolute classic that I am sure needs no introduction to those with toddlers. My littlest picked this out from the shelf this week and what has been fascinating for me to witness is how differently two toddlers can read, see and experience the same book.

My eldest loved the animal noises and we always made a game of saying them all in different ways at various volumes and funny, matching actions. My youngest’s favourite thing at the moment is ladybirds, squeals with delight when one is spotted are common. So their favourite thing to do when we read this book is to launch themselves (if needed) across my knee to point out the ‘birdybird’ as soon as they spot it.

It’s the same book, yet how they experience and read this book is different for each of them - it’s really quite wonderful.