ABSTRACT
I decided to make a big book for the two children I look after because I found that, while reading a smaller book with both of them, Mark-who is 14 months old-wanted to touch the pictures on every page. He would cover up the words so Louise-who is three-and-ahalf-would complain that Mark was ‘spoiling the story’ because she liked to look at the words and point out the letters she knew or ask about words. So I thought the solution would be to have a big book with pictures on one side so Mark could look at it and touch it and attempt to say what the pictures were, while Louise could sit on the other side of me and ‘read’ the book by herself, eventually. So, with this in mind, I told Louise what I wanted to do and asked her to help me. This made her very excited and she came up with the title ‘When Goldilocks Went To The House of the Bears’ because we had recently been to a stage production of this fairy tale and both children really enjoyed it. So, while Mark was having his daily nap Louise and I began to make the big book. I drew lines on the right-hand side of the paper first and while Louise sang the song aloud I wrote the words. Then I got Louise to look through some books and find some pictures of chairs, beds, bowls and bears so that I could draw them.
