Today we read Kitten's First Full Moon by Keven Henkes:
A cute story about a kitten who, when she sees a full moon - the first she's ever seen - thinks it's a bowl of milk in the sky. She sets out to get the bowl of milk in the sky and runs into a bit of difficulty. I generally do not read aloud books by Kevin Henkes because I believe that children need to be firmly grounded in reality prior to be introduced to fantasy - a Montessori concept - (i.e. children need to firmly understand that rats don't speak English or any human language of any sort that we are aware). With this book, like almost all books I read aloud, I add "insha'Allah", "subhana'Allah" and masha'Allah", etc. whenever appropriate.
We also read, Where Is That Cat by Carol Greene
When you're picking children's picture books to read aloud what is it that makes you pick the book? Is it the book cover, the illustrations inside, the topic, or the author? Or something else?
Assalaamu alaikum sister,
ReplyDeleteBut doesn't this montessori concept contradict what we know of animals from the story of Sulayman alaihi as-salaam? Although we will never understand their language, we know that they do speak, and is there really anything wrong about an author imagining what they might say? (honest question). When reading stories about talking animals, I always tell my kids that animals speak, but we can't understand them... my just-turned-3 year old always reminds me that animals cannot talk, based on his experience, so I'm not sure I see any harm in developing the concept that they can, and that they have fears and conversations etc.