Are we sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

I’m cool auntie Lesley, don’t you know? Well, my two-year-old niece hasn’t officially given me that title, and it may now be in doubt, but I’m hoping that it’s only a matter of time. When she visited over the bank holiday weekend I was deluded enough to think I was prepared. A bubble wand was at the ready, the sun was shining and the park is two minutes from the house. I would tire her out for the suitably grateful brother and sister-in-law. And it was all going according to plan until I was felled by a skill I didn’t know I was lacking. You see I was presumptuous enough to think I could handle a little bit of reading with her. Good girl that she is, she had a pile of books in tow and as we settled down I thought that it would be a cinch.

“Sing this.”

Huh?

“Sing this!” said with more force and an impatient wriggle. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can sing my way quite confidently through 4 or 5 verses of The Wheels on the Bus among others, but I was utterly stumped when it came to improvising a ditty for each page of Jack (of the Beanstalk)’s adventures.

I doubt that the next time I’ll see her I’ll have suddenly developed this extempore skill, so perhaps I need to up the production values on my reading time.

Perhaps a moving distraction or integral narrator in the shape of a book-and-Elmo-puppet combination:  see Clap Your Hands.
Tales of the unexpected with pop-ups? Check out The Bedtime Bear.
Or should I turn the tables and get her to take charge of the sound effects for a beautiful book like Silly Suzy Goose?

Lesley-Anne Crooks, Sales & Digital Manager