All Rileyed Up

BOB Books have apparently been around for a while, but this is my first introduction to them. I have Set 1 for Beginning Readers, comprised of 12 short booklets. And boy howdy, do they mean short. I wish all books were like this, because as un-motherly as it sounds, sometimes I can’t stand reading aloud with the kids. I used to enjoy reading kid books, but when I’m reading something for the 950th time, it wears on my interests somewhat. Fortunately, no matter how bored I might get of reading BOB books, at least they’re short. Anyone can handle a minute, right?

My kids, ages 3 and 4, enjoy BOB books. They don’t read aloud much (yet), but they will point to the pictures. The sentences are nice and simple (“Mat sat. Sam sat.”) and at the beginning of every booklet, they tell you which sounds are being emphasized (no more than four per book), which is nice for the older children because you can make them point them out while reading. The books are also stick drawings with bits of color, so you could extend the reading activity to an art activity by encouraging your kids to draw them freehand or trace them, and color them. You could even re-enact these stories, as most of them involved easy things like “Dot and Mit sit on a mat” that could get funny when they sit on each other.

I like this one guy, Mac, who looks a little bit like a robot. “Dot and the Dog” involves the story of Dot, a little girl who looks like her hair is permanently in curlers, and her dog, as they try to figure out what is in a bag that Dot has. In the end, they discover “The bag had a hot dog.” I don’t know about you, some mystery bag containing a hot dog sounds pretty suspicious to me.

Then there is “Lad and the Fat Cat” — easily my favorite. First, it contains the sentence: “Lad sat on a keg,” followed up with “Lad had a nap” where he is sleeping against the keg (aka “barrel”). This book also talked about the “fat, fat cat” who at the end we find out was pregnant! Yes! Let’s call the pregnant animals fat! That will make all of us mommies feel great.

In “The Vet,” a veterinarian who goes to the zoo to help the hurt lion, which includes a page where “The cat ran zig zag. The vet ran zip zap.” The picture of the vet makes him look like he is a figure skater, and frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea to move like that around a big cat (we all saw what happened to poor Roy, of “Siegfried and” fame ). But no worries from The Vet – he and the lion shake hands at the end (“O.K. Cat! O.K. Vet!”)

So, um, yeah. That’s my review of this book. Enthusiastic thumbs up for the little kids! And a few snickers for Mommy and Daddy too.

Important things for you to know:

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BTW, Kailani of An Island Life is holding a giveaway to Warm Biscuit Bedding Company. Stop by before September 28th for all the details. They have nice fabric (and I’m into sewing lately).

You can also check out Kailani’s sidebar for info on the Carnival of Family Life, to which this book review is being submitted. See Real Life after Sept 30 for more posts.