So Dex recently turned three. Three. What the hell? He was the tiniest baby and is now a lump of a toddler. One more year and he’ll be at school! Time to ramp up the reading and get him ready to take on all that school life throws at him - at this rate, I’ll be spell-checking his dissertation well before I’m ready.
Luckily, Dexter loves books. Even luckier, lots of publishing houses know it and are only too happy to send my little guy books to try out. The proof of a good book is most definitely in the pudding, so Dex is doing his little bit for toddlers everywhere by reviewing everything that comes via the postie.
Sometimes however, mummy knows from a cursory glance what will be a hit. As such, two of the presents he ripped open on his birthday were these brilliantly engaging noisy books from Little Tiger Press - books that I knew would take pride of place on his bookshelf.
These are two of the latest books by Annette Rusling, author of a number of preschool lift-the-flap, little-and-big and noisy books - all of which are come under the “my first” umbrella. I love this snippet from a mini bio of Annette Rusling as it sums up exactly why she was destined to write children’s books:
As a precocious toddler she would read “To Let” signs in the windows of office blocks and wonder why they didn’t write something that looked a little bit less like toilet. From there she graduated to being perpetually late for school as she had stayed awake too long reading.
This really made me choke on my coffee as I had exactly the same proclivities as a child. I would wait until the creaks of the stairs stopped groaning under the weight of my parents, and instantly switch on my Barbie torch under the duvet. I wanted to be a big girl and read books that were well beyond my age. The scarcer the illustrations the better - I’d fold down the pages of them then make it my mission to get to them before I went to sleep.
Back to preschool - So what makes these books so great?
They’re educational. They’re a step up from the “A bus is red” books that Dex is used to and encourage him to really think about the shape and purpose of things around him.
He’s a boy so has no shortage of toy cars, fire engines and farm vehicles. Until now, these have been pushed across the carpet, crashed into one another and thrown at his little sister. Thanks to these books, he’s slowly beginning to use his imagination and play with them in real-life situations. His fire engine will respond to imaginary fires, with toy soldiers climbing the ladder to survey the scene. He’s even making whooshing noises at they spray hoses at the flames. It’s incredibly cute and rewarding to watch.
I like the way Rusling doesn’t attempt to patronise her readers. It’s about learning what these vehicles are, and what they do. The imagery is bright, high res and real - no more cartoons or illustrations. Dexter seems to appreciate this as he can spend a good half hour at a time studying them.
Rusling also uses more advanced vocabulary. In the example below you’ll see “compress”, “twine” and “crop” - all of which Dexter wasn’t familiar with. He’ll look at us quizzically and we’ll elaborate for him. This extends story-time, making it a more interactive and educational experience.
The noises are a bit of a gimmick. There’s just one noise per book; a siren and tractor sound (no prizes for guessing which is which). Nevertheless, Dex is intrigued by them. He’s began to imitate them when he plays which is really encouraging given his slow speech development.
All in all, we’re chuffed to bits with these books. It’s too easy nowadays to pop to Waterstones and buy what you think your child will enjoy. Sometimes it pays to buy something more advanced so they really push themselves - the results might surprise you.
Both books are available from Little Tiger Press:
Emergency Rescue: ISBN: 9781848690585 £6.99
Farm Vehicles: ISBN: 9781848690592 £6.99
You can also follow Little Tiger Press on Twitter and Facebook for more reading inspiration for your child.
