Rise the Moon by Eileen Spinelli, with pictures by Raul Colon has become a fast favorite in our classroom. The children are drawn into the gentle and lyrical text, and love to spot the moon in each beautifully drawn image. Each passage contains a description of a familiar person or animal and their interaction with the moon. Amongst others, you’ll find a moth, an artist, a dancer, a baker, a sailor, a pack of wolves, and a mother with her baby. Though the images are rich enough to stand alone, the children request hearing the words again and again!
This particular book has so many of the wonderful qualities I look for when making selections for my class. I like to rotate our book offerings every other week or so. Each time I visit the library, I choose about eight new books based on several important characteristics. The books must first be worthy to look at on their own, that the children are not dependent upon an adult to assist them. I like to choose books based on seasonally appropriate or thematically familiar characteristics. In addition, I look for books that (are):
- well written
- thought provoking, but simple in context
- intellectually appealing to the toddler age
- culturally enriching, and reflective of diversity
- express relatable emotions
- rich (but limited) language
- avoids stereotypes (I sometimes take the liberty of changing a word here or there if the book fits all other points!)
- grounded in reality (no talking animals or the like)
Beyond these 10 points, I avoid “teaching” books; like the ones that focus on potty training, jealousy over a new baby or the ABC’s. These types of books tend to oversimplify the concepts they present, assuming the children need to have their thoughts and emotions “dummed down” to understand them. There are books that may discuss these ideas as part of life, or may happen to be organized by letters or numbers; and these are sometimes fine, as long as the central concept of the book is not to present an idea or way of thinking to the child. The best way we can offer children an understanding of the world is to put them directly in touch with it, and to be a constant model of expected behavior.
Eileen Spinelli’s Rise the Moon is one I will return to many times through the years, and I happily rate this selection a 9.5 out of 10!
Great post, Mia,
I appreciate your clear guidelines when selecting a developmentally appropriate book. Here’s my question: Why avoid books that feature talking animals? Is there an advantage to focusing on human-based characters instead of anthropomorphic ones?
Great question! Essentially, children need to be grounded in reality before they can appreciate depth in humor and imagination; they should know what a bear is before a talking bear will be funny. Through the first plane of development (birth through 6 years) a child is constructing their understanding of themselves, their immediate community and the wider world. It is important that we give them facts and truths to build upon during this time. Additionally, up to about age 3, children learn unconsciously, without any filters at all. Meaning that everything they experience becomes part of their understanding of the world. Anthropomorphic animals and objects can be confusing to a child of this age because of this unconscious and absorbent learning.
I was recently explaining this to a parent in my class. She went home and showed her little one pictures of a real pig and “peppa pig,” and a gold fish and the “bubble guppies” asking her which were real. She was pretty surprised when her 3 year old asserted that all of them were real, and they she could visit them in real life, even. This is not to suggest that she will always believe that cartoons are real, but rather that as she is building her understanding of the world, we serve her better by offering her the most accurate information we can.
I hope that helped, thanks for reading!
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