Of course my goal with this newsletter is to help make reading together a process that you and your little one both enjoy, and like we talked about last month, book selection can play a HUGE part in that!

For example, one thing to keep in mind when choosing books for toddlers — who can be tricky to keep engaged because of their developing attention spans and boundless energy — is to look for books with a repeating refrain.

A repeating refrain is a line of text that appears several times throughout the book, and they make powerful engagement tools for a couple of reasons.

First, they give the child something to anticipate and that anticipation can help hold their attention.

Second, they give little ones the opportunity to participate in reading the book, even if they aren't reading words on their own yet.

In this month's featured online storytime, I share an excellent example of a book with a repeating refrain — Brian Won's delightful story about generosity and friendship, "Hooray for Hat!"

The book starts around the 3:30 mark, if you want to jump right in.

Bonus Tip

Sometimes the repetition in these books can be a little grating for adults, so feel free to steer clear of these titles on days when you're not feeling up for it.

It can be easy to forget that at some point in our lives we had to learn HOW to use a book.

Opening it, turning the pages, even holding it the right way up might be second nature to us now, but these were all skills we had to learn — and now that you're a pro, you get to teach your little one(s) how to do them too!

For this month's offline activity, I've created a game you can play to teach your kiddo "Which Way Is Up?"

All you'll need are a few books, a flat surface and the instructions, which you can download by clicking the button below.

Until next month, take care and happy reading!

Love,
Tanya Bee