PPBF: Boing

Today's Perfect Picture Book Friday pick

Boing, by Nick Bruel

Boing
Written and illustrated by Nick Bruel
A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, 2004
Grades K-2

Themes:
Growing up, animals

Opening:
Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. Watch me.

Synopsis:
Mama kangaroo wants to teach her joey how to jump, but instead of "boing", she goes "blomp."
A frog, a grasshopper, a jackrabbit, and even a koala cheer the little one on. It isn't until they think to check in her pocket that the baby finds her "boing", with a marvelous pop-up ending.

What I Love:
A simple pick for today which, though light on text and story, makes for fun interaction for the littlest readers. My family always loved reading with sound effects and funny voices. This book offers the perfect opportunity. The repetition is great for pre-readers. One could also use this book for the subtle message of encouragement to keep trying or to look at a problem another way. In a humourous twist, the author includes a chance to review numbers and colors when (SPOILER ALERT!) baby kangaroo finally empties her pocket of the horde of treasures she's been carrying.
Bonus: 

Courtesy Excellent Kids' Books

1. Use this book as an opportunity to move around. Jump like a grasshopper, a kangaroo, a frog, etc. Don't forget to include the animal sounds.
2. As mentioned above, this book can be used for color identification and review of numbers one to ten.
3. Sort and categorize the items in joey's pocket.
4. Play How Many Steps Before the Queen or hopscotch to go along with the counting and jumping theme.
5. Danielle's Place has a cute kangaroo planter craft easy for little hands to create.

6. National Geographic Kids is a great place to learn about Australia, and New Zealand's Science Kids site has pages on koalas, kangaroos, and other native creatures.
7. Grandparent.com offers educational color-by-number sheets with frogs and other animals.
8. Check out all the Perfect Picture Books at your local library.

Have you reviewed a Perfect Picture Book along this theme? Please leave the link in the comments below. Thanks!


Check out all the recommended titles for Perfect Picture Book Friday
for October 9, 2015 available on Susanna Leonard Hill's blog.