It’s been a long time since I’ve written a Book of the Week post. I do feel sad that I’ve let this column go a bit but I am glad that when I first introduced it, I was wise enough to call it a ‘weekly-ish’ column. Looks like I knew myself pretty well on this one!

Recently though, I was in the Curious Reader looking for more early chapter books for Katherine. Hello, hard to find genre but that is a post for another day. The point here is that while I was there, Sally introduced me to our new favorite picture book, Thank you, Octopus by Darren Farrell. In this hilarious tale, an octopus is in charge of putting a little boy to bed and things go pretty much as you would expect.

What I love about this story is that it makes as great a read aloud as it does a Read Together as it does as early reader. If your child is not yet reading, they will laugh along with you as you read. They can make great predictions using the illustrations when you re-read and they will maybe even draw similarities between this duo and some other favorites like Elephant and Piggie. If your child is just learning to read, the phrases ‘No thank you Octopus’ and ‘Thank you Octopus’ are repeated throughout the book giving your early reader a chance to feel a great sense of independence and confidence when reading along with you. And if you child is a bit further along on their reading adventure, they will enjoy reading this book on their own given it’s large print, short sentences and predicable text.

If you have a chance to enjoy this book, do come back and tell us your favorite part. Our has to do with egg salad….