When I started the #AtoZBloggingChallenge I knew what the letter W would stand for.. our favourite book by our favourite children’s author John Butler of course.
W is for Who Says Woof
I buy most of babyT’s books preloved and my favourite store is Eat Play Read. I first chanced upon the book Who Says Woof? during an online book stocking here in September last year. I grabbed it because the cover page looked cute.
When the book arrived and I began reading it to babyT, he had just turned 9 months then, I was amazed how quickly he was picking up the sounds of the animals in them. His favourite was “Who says Baa?” He kept repeating Baa Baa Baa all day long. Once when we were out on the road, he saw a cow on the road (this is India. 🙂 and said Mooo I had hit the home-run, the book was teaching him something. He also loved looking at the pictures. And as with most babies I was made to read that book to him twenty five times in a day…
What I loved about this book?
- Has beautiful illustration by John Butler. He is an illustrator and author of children’s books, most of which are about animals and their little families.
- I like the fact that he keeps the design theme constant in all of his books. So the bears look the same in all the books. Its like a collection of related books. Very collectible.
- The words are few in this particular book. (There are other books for older children with longer sentences too.)
- It helps to build a guessing game with your baby… Who says Woof? Turn the page. A dog says Woof. & Who says Miaow? Turn the page. A cat says Miaow.
Who says Miaow.
- It taught babyT all that he knows about animals and the sounds that they make. His favourite animal is now the Miaow Cat.
We knew all these by 10 months. 🙂 <3
We then fell in love so much with the book and John Butler’s illustrations that we went on a mission to find more of his books. Some were bought from Eat Play Read and some from Amazon.
The new additions
Our current favourite among these is Can you growl like a bear?
After all the cute little domestic and gentle animals from Who says Woof? this book talks about the ones that live in the jungles – bear, chimp, elephant, wolf and some more. BabyT loves imitating the noises that these animals and birds make in the book. “Can you roar like a leopard..?”
How gorgeous are the illustrations again? This particular page reminds me of a warm sunny day in summer spent wandering aimlessly in a park in London. <3
I don’t know how but this book somehow succeeds to make me yawn by the time we get to the last page. All the animals are going about their business, making the respective noises that they do and soon day turns to night, the wolf howls at the moon (babyT and I love to throw up our head and go Howwwwllll), the panda mommy and her little baby panda snuggle up for the night and soon…
This could work very well as a bedtime story.
This reminds me today is #TellaStoryDay and is celebrated in the USA and UK. I love how apt today’s title is to the event. On #TellaStoryDay people are encouraged to tell a story, not just read books, but share a personal story with your loved ones or on social media. And that is just what I am doing, telling you about my love affair with these baby books and how much they are loved and enjoyed in our home. 🙂
The title itself was so intriguing , I immediately wanted to read. The book is so nice. Very well illustrated
Love all your recommendations Tara
What an enthusiastic and detailed post. Love the photos 🙂
Love this cute book 🙂
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What a lovely book and it’s clear your son is a fan! Being an early years teacher I’m a massive fan of books, especially those that can really teach us something 🙂
Thank you. I would love to read any reccomendations you have for early readers. 🙂
I’ve never heard if these books before bit they look good and I like the illustrations. My frie.ds son turns 1 next month and I’m on the look out for a present for him
What a cute book and you’re right- the illustrations are so beautiful! We’re always looking for more books for the kiddos (if I have to read Goodnight Moon one more time, I think I’m going to lose it!), I’ll have to check these out.
Those are so sweet. My little guy would love the illustrations. He is all about puppies!
It’s so important to introduce kids to books at a young age. This way, they will develop a lifelong love of reading well into adulthood.