Mr Brown Can Moo

Mr.Brown Can Moo! Can You? (Dr Seuss - Blue Back Book)Great for girls learning to read phonics, Mr Brown Can Moo Can You by Dr Seuss is also ideal as a book with plenty of rhyme and repetition to read to toddlers. The story is quirky and fun, encouraging interaction between the reader and the listener. My girls were happy to have it read to them many times over, which is great for a book that they are learning from while they listen.

The story follows Mr Brown and all the different types of sounds he can make including Moo, Choo, Slurp, Blurp and many many more….

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Baa Baa Smart Sheep

Baa Baa Smart SheepA hilarious New Zealand story kids just love – especially when you use to voices or get your daughter to read one of the parts whilst you read the other. The story is about the ultimate con between a bored sheep and a rather gullible turkey.

If you already have Baa Baa Smart Sheep your girls will also love I Love Lemonade (surprisingly the kids don’t seem to mind the similarity in story line between these 2 books).

Zoe Says…

This is quite a silly book. I like reading it with Mum but I always want to be the sheep so I don’t have to gobble up all of the poo!!

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A Summery Saturday Morning

A Summery Saturday MorningMy favourite Margret Mahy children’s book, A Summery Saturday Morning, has great rhyme and rhythm.This is another great story that you can either read or sing (and I’m not even much of a singer).

When the kids head to the beach with their 2 dogs they are in for quite a surprise. Stuck in the squelchy sandy and chased by a family of geese the outing comes to an unexpected end.

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A Kiwi Night Before Christmas

A Kiwi Night Before Christmas: Book and CD : with Sticker BookAnother gem by Yvonne Morrison. Keep the CD in your car for easy entertainment. A Kiwi Night Before Christmas is a great New Zealand story about 2 kids spotting Santa arriving with their pressies on Christmas Eve. It has become a Kiwi classic – my kids half think that the sleigh really is pulled by sheep after this book!

You can read this or sing it as the rhyme is clever and catchy. It’ll get stuck in your head though so read at your own risk!!

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A Kiwi Jingle Bells

A Kiwi Jingle BellsIf you’ve ever had a New Zealand summer at the beach with family and friends A Kiwi Jingle Bells is the book for you. Sing the story to the tune of Jingle Bells or read the rhyme and enjoy the gorgeous illustrations. Kids fighting in a hot car, hokey pokey ice cream, boogie boards and pavlova are some of the Kiwi summer memories that the stories evokes.

You might have been in a tent or a caravan like me rather than a combi van but the memories will be more or less the same. It’s what summer is really all about in New Zealand so share it with your kids then get them out there before they get too big.

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Mrs Wishy-Washy’s Farm

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's FarmAn absolute favourite with both girls and boys, Mrs Wishy-Washy and her cow, pig and poor old duck have been entertaining both my girls and my nephews for the last 8 years. This is one of those books that I could recite without looking at the words I’ve read it so many times. The storyline with rhyme is well done and the illustrations are clever enough to spend extra time on each page finding things.

The story is about 3 animals who get tired of having to have a bath every day and run away to the city “where the barns are big”. They get into a bit of trouble and end up n the animal jail from where they are rescued by beloved Mrs Wishy Washy and happily returned to the farm.

I started reading this to the girls before they could talk and they still loved it up to age 3.  We also had the basic board variety of Mrs Wishy Washy for when they were babies.

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Pukeko in a Ponga Tree

A Pukeko in a Ponga TreeThe Twelve Days of Christmas New Zealand style. A great book for reading or singing and easy enough for young kids to remember and recite. Pukeko in a Ponga Tree is a cleverly adapted and illustrated Kiwi version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Maya’s daycare performed this book at their Christmas concert 2 years ago (including actions) and she still launches into it from time to time. “Five big fat pigs” is definitely the favourite but with references to huhu grubs, flax kits, haka lessons, kumara, sacks of pipi, eels, poi, fish heads and piupiu, Pukeko in a Ponga Tree should be on every New Zealand child’s top Christmas books list.

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The Jolly Postman

The Jolly Postman: Or Other People's LettersLittle hands just love these removable letters in real envelopes sent from one Mother Goose character to another by the Jolly Postman.

This cleverly constructed hard back picture book is an old favourite equally popular with the little girls and boys of today.

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Another book with letters that we love…

Winnie-the-Pooh and the Day of Very Important Letters

Pearlie the Park Fairy

Pearlie in the ParkPearlie the fairy and her animal friends in Jubilee Park save the day in style in this action packed adventure story. Australian author Wendy Harmer uses an easy flowing fun style of language with “hurly burly Pearlie” a popular phrase throughout the book.

The Pearlie in the Park series of books don’t have chapters but are a similar level to other first chapter books and long enough to make girls feel great about reading a “big” book. The fun coloured pictures also help to keep early readers engaged in the story.

I read these to my youngest daughter, who loved them, whilst Zoe read them herself once she was ready to start basic chapter books. There are a range of Pearlie stories, all with your classic good versus evil and ingenuity saves the day type story lines.

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More Pearlie Books we loved…

Pearlie and Opal Pearlie and the Lost Handbag Pearlie and Jasper Pearlie and the Big Doll Pearlie and the Christmas Angel Pearlie and the Silver Fern Fairy Pearlie in Central Park Pearlie and Her Pink Shell

Monkey Puzzle

Monkey PuzzleMonkey Puzzle is such a gorgeous story – it’s about a baby monkey who asks a butterfly for help when he has lost his Mum. The rhyme is clever and the pictures of the jungle are beautifully done.

The story is written as a conversation between the butterfly, who asks for information about the Mum to figure out what she might look like, and the baby monkey, who can’t understand why the butterfly is having so much trouble working it out. The line – “how could I know, none of my babies look like me” is etched in my mind even though I haven’t read this one for a while.

Monkey Puzzle is a great story for reading over and over to young kids who love to learn the lines of a story and finish them for you as you read. And the happy ending makes it even better!

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Percy The Park Keeper

One Snowy Night (Tales from Percy's Park S.)All the Percy the Park Keeper picture books have been a hit with Maya (and Zoe, even though she was a bit older when we were given them). The ones with a fold out map or poster in the back are great for playing “I Spy” at the end to make the story more interactive.

Percy and his animal friends live in a park in England and solve a series of problems together by working through adversity as a group. The illustrations are lovely – especially the expressions on the animal’s faces (now we know what an unhappy fox might look like!). Nick Butterworth writes engaging stories with enough intrigue to hold a pre-schoolers attention for the whole story.

One Snowy Night takes place in Percy the park keeper’s little hut. Percy gets lots of animal visitors on one particularly stormy night – all looking for somewhere to sleep. Soon Percy’s bed is full of animals and no one is happy. After a little fright from a mole coming in through the floor boards they soon find better places to sleep around the hut and Percy and the mole snuggle down for the night.

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Other Percy the Park Keeper stories we enjoyed

After the Storm (Tales from Percy's Park S.) The Secret Path (Tales from Percy's Park S.) Percy's Bumpy Ride (Tales from Percy's Park S.) After the Storm (Tales from Percy's Park S.)

Rainbow Magic Fairies

Zoe the Skating Fairy (Rainbow Magic)The most popular books we have ever read, the Rainbow Magic Fairy books have been in and out of our house for nearly a year now and the girls adore them.

The Rainbow Magic stories all follow a similar plot (and yet still the girls don’t get bored with them!). One of the fairies has had their special magic item stolen or about to be stolen Jack Frost’s goblins. 2 friends, Rachel and Kirsty, who are friends of the fairies get asked to help out to save the object so that all is well in both Fairyland and the human world. The girls go on a series of adventures with the fairy concerned and sometimes get turned into fairies themselves. Only they know about the fairies and goblins so they risk everything to keep the secret safe.

I’m not sure how many we have read – over 50 would be my guess. The girls own about 10 themselves and the rest I have taken out of the library or borrowed from friends. I’ve lost track of which ones we have read now but the kids have remembered them all and can tell at a glance whether we’ve read it before. Not that they mind having them read to them several times over. Zoe can read these herself now but is still equally happy to sit with Maya and listen while I read. Amazingly Maya (3 years) will sit still for over 1/2 an hour listening right through a book – and they only have one simple sketch per page.

Tip…

When Zoe started to become more confident with her reading I got her to read the first page of each chapter and I would read the rest. We then moved onto the first 2 pages and after a while I found she’d picked them up herself and was reading chapters to Maya when I wasn’t around. Now she reads them on her own in her head – they are probably a bit easy for her now but she hasn’t got bored with them yet!

There are new books coming out all the time but with well over 100 titles to choose from there’s never a Rainbow Magic book far from hand. The books are either in various series of 7 books each (they can be purchased separately or as a set) or as larger books with 3 sub-stories within them. There are pictures on most pages and the chapters are reasonably short to easy to focus on. I quite like buying books with the girls friends names on for birthday presents and special gifts.

Find out more about/purchase Zoe the Skating Fairy and other Rainbow Magic Fairy Books

Visit the Rainbow Magic website to create your own fairy. Your kids will love it.

Other Rainbow Magic Books We Loved….

Ruby the Red Fairy Natalie the Christmas Stocking Fairy: 2011 (Rainbow Magic) Paige the Christmas Play Fairy Chrissie the Wish Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Tamara the Tooth Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Eva the Enchanted Ball Fairy: A Rainbow Magic Book (Princess Fairies) Lucy the Diamond Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Emily the Emerald Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Louise the Lily Fairy: A Rainbow Magic Book Ally the Dolphin Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Elizabeth the Jubilee Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Emma the Easter Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Shannon the Ocean Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Maya the Harp Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Trixie the Halloween Fairy (Rainbow Magic)

Princess Poppy

Princess Poppy: Playground PrincessPrincess Poppy picture books are about an ordinary girl called Poppy and her best friend Honey. The stories are about teaching kids the right way to behave when difficult situations occur in life. Poppy often gets it wrong the first time and learns her lesson the hard way before sorting everything out in the end.

Playground Princess is about 2 friends who want to be part of the cool group at school. When Honey doesn’t act badly when the cool girls want her to they wont let her into their club and what’s worse Poppy abandons her too. But when Poppy figures out where she wants to be and who she wants to be it all works out for the best.

My kids love the Princess Poppy series and they also go onto the Princess Poppy website for some simple games and activities just right for girls learning to use a computer.

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More Princess Poppy books we love…

Princess Poppy: The Royal Parade

Angelina Ballerina

Angelina Ice SkatesLittle girls who love ballet and dancing will be captivated by the Angelina Ballerina stories. I picked up Angelina Ice Skates at a second hand book shop last year and it’s been a favourite with both Zoe and Maya ever since.

The story line is about working together to create a ice skating show for New Year’s Eve. Like all the Angelina stories, things don’t work out quite as they had hoped at the start and the mice nearly give up on their plan. But they persevere and work together so that everything comes together for a fabulous show in the end.

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Are You My Mother? by Dr Seuss

Are You My Mother? (Beginner Series)Dr Seuss books are great for early readers – there’s plenty of repetition and great story lines to keep them engaged. Are You My Mother by Dr Seuss definitely appeals to girls as well as boys. The story is about a young chick who hatches when her mother is away from the nest and goes in search of her mother – not knowing what a bird actually looks like. The more advanced Dr Seuss stories focus on phonics but this one is really about gaining confidence in reading and a sense of achievement about being able to read a whole book.

When Zoe first read this book to me my youngest daughter, who was also listening, started to cry when the little chick got picked up by a large digger. For me this proved how well the book was written for early readers – even someone with limited reading ability could make the story flow well enough for a 2 year old to comprehend the story line. Not so good about the tears though….

Until Zoe learned to read I hadn’t realised that Dr Seuss books are cleverly designed to help kids to learn to read. They are grouped into different colours depending on how difficult they are. Many of them are great for learning phonics. The Dr Seuss blue series are for kids starting to read – you can also read them to younger children because they are easy to remember and recite.

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Where’s My Teddy

Where's My Teddy?If you love putting on silly voices and sound effects then this is the book for you. It’s about a boy who loses his teddy and discovers a gigantic bear with the same problem. The story is also about conquering your fears… and it rhymes – what more could you want. My sister-in-law sent Zoe this book because it was a favourite of her cousin – it’s been around for a long time but it was a great hit. There a couple of other books in the series as well but this one works the best with the silly voices!

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Giraffe’s Can’t Dance

Giraffes Can't DanceWe’ve read this book hundreds of times and never get bored with it. The story is about a giraffe who becomes an outcast because he can’t dance as well as the other animals in the jungle. He leaves the annual dance feeling very downhearted until he meets a violin-playing cricket who gives him the confidence to find his own rhythm. I wont give away the ending but needless to stay it’s a happy ending and all about not listening to negative comments from others and doing your own thing.

There’s plenty of well thought-out rhyme, humour and great illustrations. You can spend extra time hunting for the cricket on each page for a bit of added entertainment too.

What Zoe Thinks…

All the animals in this book thought Gerald couldn’t dance but they were wrong. Gerald was my favourite character. This taught me that even if you think something you might not be right.

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I haven’t listened to the CD version of this book but this is one book that could pull off a CD well.

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) [Board book]A timeless classic – The Very Hungary Caterpillar is a must for kids aged 0 -4 years. The story is about a caterpillar who pigs out on all sorts of different food – including one serious junk food binge – then curls up into a cocoon and turns into a beautiful butterfly. As well as learning about counting, days of the week and the life cycle of a butterfly there are different sized pages and holes to keep the kids interested throughout the story.

I remember this from when I was a kid, so it’s been around for a while. These days it comes in board book variety – which I’d recommend because it will get a good going over from the kids. I haven’t tried the finger puppet version but a similar finger puppet book that we had for my youngest daughter was extremely popular so I can see how these 2 things would go well here.

The Very Hungary Caterpillar is a great present for a new-born or toddler. Every kids bookshelf should have at least one.

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Dear Zoo

The Pop-up Dear ZooWe’ve had a few different versions of Dear Zoo over the years including Dear Zoo with Flaps and the Dear Zoo Pop Up version. The pop up version was by far the most popular as it combines the hands-on attraction of flaps with the surprise element of cleverly designed pop ups.

Each page is different and has a different animal on it. There is repetition to help keep the interest of young kids and interaction with the book to make them feel involved and reinforce the words. This is great for teaching animal names, sizes and behaviour without the child realising that they are learning.

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My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes

My Cat Likes to Hide in BoxesLynley Dodd has been around for a long time – My Cat Like to Hide in Boxes is a book I remember from my childhood. There’s plenty of the rhyme and repetition that Lynley does so well. My kids liked calling out “But my cat likes to hide in boxes” each time we got to the my cat pages. We had the board book and even the back cover was part of the story for a bit of a twist.

If you have a cat this is a must for your kids… especially if it’s always hiding like ours.

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Board Book