Maisy Books
[ Posted by bibliomom Thu, 25 May 2006 20:33:00 GMT ]
board books are good
Picture, if you will, the idyllic scene of an adorable pig-tailed preschooler, perched on Mama’s knee, book in hand and rapt with attention. Now picture the same child (but much dirtier) crawling around my lap and up and over my head before yanking the book out of my hand in order to rapidly flip through the pages herself.
Now guess which scene is the norm at my house.
It’s not that she doesn’t love books – she loves to look through brightly illustrated picture books, preferably featuring her favorite tv characters. But as much as she loves looking at Dora, she just doesn’t have the patience to sit through the direct-from-tv-scripted text.
Hola! It’s Valentine’s day! Boots and I just finished making a valentine’s card for my grandma! Mi abuela! We’ve also got a special Valentine’s Day surprise for her.
WIll you help us bring the surprise to Grandma’s house? Great!
This is all on the opening page. Needless to say, by the time we get to the special surprise, Sophie’s grabbed the book and flipped the page herself.
Which is why we love the Maisy books. Instead of me having to make up my own story in order to keep pace with her manic page flipping (“Look! There’s Dora and Boots! Hi, Dora! Hi, Boots” insert page turn noise here), most of the Maisy books are just flat out geared for small kids with no attention span.
Take Maisy’s Train. For starters, it’s a board book – perfect for violent page turners. Second, it’s illustrated in bright, primary colors, with simple illustrations. Third, it’s only about 16 pages long. Last, and more importantly, the text consists of simple descriptions of what’s going on in the pictures and only takes 5 or 6 seconds to read – about the length of time it takes to look the picture over and turn the page.
Maisy is driving her train today. All aboard. Toot-toot.
insert page turn noise here
We’re off to the country. Hello, Geese!
It’s that basic. And yet at their best, the Maisy books are also utterly charming and entertaining. Reading Maisy’s Fire Engine makes that same wiggly girl fall off my lap giggling with delight instead of impatience.
Now, there’s a whole herd of Maisy books and videos (the videos are largely the book and text set to calm, entetaining music – we’re rather fond of those, too). There’s board books, paper books, flap books, slide/pull tab books, and a book that turns into a paper doll house. My daughter has matured a little and is now willing to sit through just about anything Maisy, but some of the stories are a little snappier than others, and different sets tend to follow different themes. For instance, Where Are Maisy’s Friends? and Where is Maisy’s Panda are two of our favorite Lift-the-Flap books where Maisy’s searching for something (“Who’s that hiding under the bed?”) – really basic and especially fun for hands-on kids. Maisy Drives the Bus and Maisy’s Pool are inexpensive paper picture books that have a bit more of a story and which my daugter adores. Maisy’s Big Flap Book is more of an activity book than a story (“Maisy and Tallulah work in the garden. Look how many flowers they have grown! Can you count the flower and bugs in each row?” proceed to flip up 15 flower flaps) but what’s not to love about an oversized board book with flaps? Some of the pull-tab books I’ve seen are also lots of fun, but much more fragile.
Gotta kid who won’t sit still for storytime? Try Maisy – the illustrations are always charming, the text is always simple, and with flaps, pulls and dozens of titles to choose from, there’s bound to be something your little wiggler will enjoy.
