This week we welcomed our first 2025 cohort of Year 2 Junior Librarians. Over the next few weeks, our new Junior Librarians will be sharing some of their favourite stories with you – tempting you to try something new!

Book of the Week

Our first book of 2025 has been chosen by the new Junior Librarian, Aanya from Owl class. She recommends Elmer – Guess Who? written and illustrated by David McKee.

Aanya’s reason for her choice:

‘Elmer is one of my favourite book characters and I think the younger children in Grimsdell will really like exploring this story.’

As fresh and vogueish today as when he make his first appearance over 35 years ago, Elmer continues to enchant children. He’s bright enough to catch the eye of even the very youngest and this sturdy board book, with its special mirror feature, offers lots of opportunities for early learning fun and games. There’s a peek-a-boo challenge on each page as Elmer goes in search of his new friend – which on the last page turns out to be you! The jungle scenes are as bold and vibrant as Elmer, and the warm tones and happy cast of animal characters will brighten up every day.

I have written previously about the literacy benefits of interactive books which help embed pre-reading skills. Introducing interactive books to your story repertoire with your children, helps parents and children to get used to talking about what they are seeing in the book. Talking to your children about what you are reading and asking them questions are both great precursors for teaching them to read. Good readers ask questions about what they are reading. Asking questions together gives them a great start on this skill. With a traditional storybook, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out where in the story you want to stop and ask questions. With an interactive book, it is usually easier to find natural places to stop and talk. Ask questions about what your child is seeing on the page. See what they think will happen next. With ‘look and find’ books, ask them to find other items in the photo than the ones provided in the key.

Many interactive books have pull tabs or flaps to lift. These books are meant to encourage children to interact with the story and get them excited for reading. As a parent, these books provide you with an opportunity to work on some pre-reading skills with even your youngest children. Lift the flap books are a great way to teach children about making predictions. Before you let your child open the flap, ask them what they think they will find behind it. This guessing game is not only fun, but is an early lesson in making predictions, which is an important skill for many subjects.

Interactive books encourage hands-on learning. Maybe this benefit is the most obvious! Interactive books encourage children to press, lift, turn, flip, listen, whisper, shout, etc. These opportunities engage the mind, the body, and the senses, setting the stage for meaningful learning opportunities. Research shows that interactive children’s books can be an effective tool for engaging children and improving their literacy skills. A study published by Atlantis Press (2021 - Research on Interactive Design in Children’s Books | Atlantis Press) found that “interactive children’s books allow children to participate and interact with books, which not only improves children’s practical ability and learning efficiency, but also improves children’s autonomous learning ability”. The interactive book design method breaks the original expression form of ordinary books, and the book content and interactive form become more colourful, vivid and interesting.

Happy Reading!

Mrs Harvey