ABSTRACT
Introduction ead again! Please? Please?” This is a familiar plea of toddlers who have been listening to quality literature since birth. Young children quickly find the joy in listening to funny, suspenseful, or tender stories. Even
decades after Margaret Wise Brown wrote Goodnight Moon (1947), children enjoy the lilting rhyme of “Goodnight room / Goodnight moon / Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.” A century after Beatrix Potter wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902), children love to repeat the names Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter and giggle when they hear of Peter’s mischief, his running back to his mother’s hole and finding that his mother loves him unconditionally, even though she does make him drink a dose of chamomile tea. Children also enjoy listening to Tomie dePaolo’s Strega Nona (1979). Like Big Anthony, children often are tempted to do things they are specifically told not to do. Children agree that the punishment Strega Nona dished out to Big Anthony-eating all the extra pasta-is just, and they laugh when his stomach grows with each bite. As adults read Is Your Mama a Llama? (Guarino, 1997), children enjoy guessing what creature is being described. Children like to imagine with Lois Ehlert in Leaf Man (2005) that leaves can be real people or animals on an imaginary journey; and as they view the book’s cover, they become aware of the many different types of leaves and often begin looking for them in their neighborhoods.
