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Ready to Read
Sparking Your Child's Interest in Books
By Melissa Granberry
Rhymes are a good starting point for young children. Verses help little ears to hear and learn the sounds of letters. "Children will be able to pick out sounds and words from rhymes at a very early age," says Betty Watson, director of early childhood education and professor of children's literature at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. "Even though a child might not know the meaning of a word in the rhyme, he will remember the word and eventually be able to add it to his vocabulary." Watson suggests starting out with nursery rhymes, such as My First Mother Goose (Candlewick, 1996) by illustrator Rosemary Wells.
Introducing the alphabet, or naming letters, can also be done with several different children's books. Baby Einstein's The ABC's of Art(Baby Einstein, 2002), introduces letters alongside famous artwork. Suggestions to parents are made on each page to demonstrate different concepts that can be learned in the picture.
Other recommendations by Watson are:
- Where's Spot? (Putnam, 2003) by Eric Hill
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- The Napping House (Harcourt, 1984) by Audrey Wood
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
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