How to choose the best storybook?

In this post I will talk about different books that I have worked in class. My goal is to see which ones are suitable to tell (and not to read) in infant education. To see if the books are appropriate or not, I will follow the following criteria:

-          Good enough

-          Children should enjoy it 

-          Teachers should like it and feel they can tell it 

-          Appropriate for children

-          Wide language experience

-          No long descriptive paragraphs.

-          Connected with previous and succeeding work

 

Let's begin!

 -   Princess Smarty-pants: It is a very fun story. It tells the story of a princess who breaks the schemes of the tales of princesses we are accustomed. However, it is not a book for pre-school children. It vocabulary and the plot of the story are more suitable for children in primary education.

 

-   The mixed-up chameleon: In my opinion, It is a difficult story for infant education because the pictures are not very clear and can confuse children. Personally, I do not feel very comfortable telling this story. However, we can shorten it and accompany with a drawing, made by us, in which we will adding the different parts of the animals. 

-    Do you want to be my friend?: It is a perfect book for children in early childhood education. Although the story has no text, the teacher can use images to tell the story as he wants. These pictures are very clear, they call the child's attention and they make them guess the tail of the following animal. 

To make it easy, we can repeat the same phrases to involve the children in the story. 

-    Zebra: It's a tale suitable for young children.  It has short and repetitive phrases.  His vocabulary is simple. At the same time, children can follow the story thanks to the large and beautiful drawings that have. Children will also be vigilant, if we can keep them intrigued, to find out what has happened to the zebra stripes. 

-    The Emperor´s egg: It's a book recommended for primary education. It is about the penguin’s life. However, their phrases are very long and it have a very complex vocabulary. Despite this, its drawings are wonderful. 

-    Handa´s surprise: This book talks about topics interesting for children, such as the different types of fruit, the numbers and the colours. However, it emphasizes in the flavours and textures of fruits. I believe that these aspects are complicated for young children. I think that it would be more interesting if we focus on the animals.  I think also that it is a book better for read. Nevertheless, it is a book with beautiful illustrations that help the children to follow the story. 

-    Lost and found: is a very striking book. It has flaps that open and eyelashes to move drawings.  It also has very clear images that help the child to go guessing what is going to happen in the story. However, it has very long sentences so I think that it is a book to read and not to tell. Another problem is that the vocabulary is a little complex for children of three years. 

-    How to be a dog: is an easy and entertaining story. In my opinion appropriate for preschool children. You can read it but also could tell as storytelling because drawings are very clear and it allows kids to follow the story.  At the same time, the vocabulary is simple and suitable for those ages.   

Then I leave a table summary. In it you can see what criteria are met in each of the books.

BOOK	Good enough	Children should enjoy it	Teachers should like it and feel they can tell it	Appropriate for children (Infant education)	Wide language experience	No long descriptive paragraphs.	Connected with previous and succeeding work
Princess Smarty-pants	V	V	V	X	V	X	-
The mixed-up chameleon	V	V	X	X	V	V	-
Do you want to be my friend?	V	V	V	V	V	V	-
Zebra	V	V	V	V	V	V	-
The Emperor´s egg	V	V	X	X	V	X	-
Handa´s surprise	V	V	X	V	V	X	-
Lost and found	V	V	X	X	V	X	-
How to be a dog	V	V	V	V	V	V	-

I hope you liked it. In a couple of weeks I'll upload new books to analyse.

Have a nice day!