November Baby Buzz Pick

There’s no use crying over spilt milk, or paint either.

Little readers will enjoy the antics of a curious chick in “Blue Chicken” by Deborah Freedman. The book is the newest Baby Buzz Pick chosen by parent educators with the Washington School District.

Each month the group, in partnership with The Missourian, selects a quality hardcover picture book for babies and toddlers birth to age 5. A review of the Baby Buzz Pick appears in the second weekend issue of The Missourian.

Using funds from a WINGS grant, the parent educators purchase additional copies of the Baby Buzz Picks to use in their parent educator program.

The following review was written by area literacy advocate Nancy Nagel.

“The barn animal illustrations come alive in this book of colors and words. A white chicken awakens from its roost and wants to help finish painting its picture. Dipping its beak into a blue inkpot leads to a wash of blue spreading over the page. Parts of the picture change color appropriately as various colors are mixed with blue. Finally the little chick cleans up the mess by spilling the water glass over the page, washing the blue away and returning all to its natural color.

“Reading together is an excellent way to expand your child’s vocabulary. Don’t shy away from new and unfamiliar words. Read them as they appear in the book; then ask your child what the words mean, look them up together in a dictionary, and try to use them in your everyday conversation. ‘Toppled’ and ‘splattered’ are a couple of the new words to discover in this book.

“Older children also will enjoy learning that the same word may have different meanings. This author uses the word ‘blue’ to describe a color and an emotion. Younger children will enjoy experimenting with the sounds of the text, such as ‘Once-purple pansies now bloom blue.’

“Older children will enjoy the multiple layers of this story. They will understand the concept of characters in a book coming alive to tell the story. They will also enjoy talking about the difference between real (nonfiction) stories and make-believe (fiction) stories.

“This book provides the starting point for conversations about careers as writers or illustrators. The illustrations are framed by tools of the trade such as paintbrushes, pencils and paint pots. Give your child blank paper and watercolor paints to illustrate their favorite stories and books. Or have them paint a picture then write down the story they tell about it in exactly their own words.

“Younger children will enjoy pointing out the basic primary colors in the illustrations in this book. If your child is not yet naming colors, name the colors one at time, then ask her to point to that color on the page.”

Other parent educator favorites this month are “Me and Meow” by Adam Gudeon, “If You Give a Dog a Donut” by Laura Numeroff, “Little Bea and the Snowy Day” by Daniel Roode, and “Bear’s Loose Tooth” by Karma Wilson.