There was a time in our house when this book was THE book. There are flaps in this book and flap books are huge with the toddler set. HUGE. You have to look under the flaps to find Spot. He is late for dinner and his mom is looking for him. Is he behind the door? Is he inside the clock? Is he in the piano? Children love looking for Spot and finding all of the silly animals along the way.
It’s been a long time since I have read this book, but I still remember it very well…it has been seared into my brain I have read it so many times. It is a very cute book about animals and the sounds they make, or in some cases, don’t make. To top it all off it has adorable illustrations AND it rhymes.
I miss the days of getting to read sweet, sweet stories like this one with a toddler on my lap. This story is great for many ages though because it includes animals, opportunities to learn colors, repetition and simple text. The illustrations are sweet as well and definitely help a beginning reader figure out unknown words as does the repetition. So, instead of reading it with a toddler on my lap, I guess I will just listen with a kindergartner on my lap.
This book made its way into our house before our oldest was born. I started reading it to him every night before he was born and then at bedtime after he was born. It is a sweet and perfect bedtime story with illustrations that are as warm and cuddly as the story.
I used to be a preschool teacher and one of the interview questions I had was to name my favorite children’s book. Â In that split second when you have to come up with a coherent answer I came up with Margaret Wise Brown’s The Big Red Barn. Â I think the reason I fell in love with this book, besides the sweet and simple story, Â is the cadence of the words, the rhyme and the ease with which children can learn the story and start to “read” it themselves because of its simplicity. Â Less is more with this book. Â It’s not a showstopper…it is a quiet classic.
