Let's Feed the Ducks

Review also includes:

Let’s Have Fun, 978-1911402039

Let’s Go to Playgroup, 978-1911402046

Let’s Go to Bed, 978-1911402053

There are a lot of good concept books for the under-fives on the market but these stand up well to the competition.  They recognise diversity in much more than a token way and the action packed pictures, full of life and colour, tap engagingly into the experiences of the very young. The text is simple but not banal and the conversations between child and adult ring true. In Let’s Feed the Ducks we have one of those familiar quick exchanges. ‘Ready?’ said Dad. ‘Nearly’, said Max. ‘Let’s go to the ducks!’ Then we are taken on the walk to the pond through lively text and detailed pictures. The other three books have a playful rhyming text. So in Let’s Go to Playgroup we find ‘Sand and sea, for Nita and me’ accompanying pictures of two small girls playing with sand and water trays. This book goes up a stage when children learn about routines and how to get along well with other children.  Let’s Have Fun shows young children enjoying adventures at the swings but a little boy is glad his mother is nearby to comfort him when he slips.  Let’s Go to Bed shows Mimi’s soothing rituals, tracking down her bear and enjoying splish splashing in the bath before settling down in her bed while her mother reads her a story.

At first children will look at the pictures as the sharing adult reads the text. But they will soon be able to recognise words that are strongly contextualised and so be helped to begin the journey towards getting meaning from print. These books deserve a place in play group and nursery school collections and are likely to be favourites at home too.