Saturday, April 6, 2013

Small Fry Saturday #17: Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury



It's time for installment #17 of Small Fry Saturdays!  This is a when-I-feel-like-it meme to showcase some of books that my 21-month-old Small Fry is currently reading.  Feel free to do a SFS post on your blog (with the graphic above) or leave a comment below about your favorite kiddie reads.


Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury

I received this book as a gift for one of my baby showers.  For a long time, Small Fry wasn't really interested in it--I think mostly because the illustrations are in rather muted colors, so when his book "reading" was very eye-catching-dependent, this wasn't a favorite.  However, it is now a nightly read in our house.  He's at an age where he loves pointing out his fingers and toes, AND he loves pointing at babies/kids in pictures ("bay-beeeee").  This book has PLENTY o' that, so he rightly adores it.

One of the things I like about this book is the diversity of kids that it portrays.  Basically each part talks about two kids...for example, one little baby "lives in a tent" and another little baby "born on the ice", etc.  It includes babies that are white, black, Asian, etc. and a wide variety of homes that they grow up in.  But both babies always have 10 fingers and 10 toes.  This is a nice way to incorporate visuals of diversity at a very early age.

This probably isn't a great pick for the itty-bitty newborns due to the lack of pop-off-the-page pictures, but for ages 18 months and up, this is a fun read with a nice message behind it.

What are some of your fave kid's books that illustrate diversity (in any form)?

4 comments:

  1. My nephew loves that book, though he's at an age where he's starting to grow out of it. Nevertheless I still hear it being read to him on occasion. He mostly has books about animals, so my knowledge is limited to them.

    Reply
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I could see how it might lose its luster as kids get older. Let me know if there are any good animal books in particular that he loves!

  2. I'm thinking daughter has probably outgrown it, but gosh I wish I'd known about this book last year or so. Looks so sweet!

    Reply
    Replies
    1. How old is your daughter, I forgot?

 
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