Laurel Porter-Gaylord

This classic book celebrates all the reasons that dads are great. Book-ended by human fathers with their children, the middle part of the book features various animals with their young. These are used to illustrate a variety of ways that fathers are lovable - from playing games like hide-and-seek to teaching their children to be careful. The text is simple and concise, making this book accessible even for young toddlers/older infants. I used this book in my classroom when we discussed show more Father's Day to help prompt the children to think about why they love their own dads. However, there's nothing in the book that is specific to that holiday so it could be used at any time throughout the year and is especially good as a lap read between fathers and their children for some quality time spent together. show less

Our version also has the Spanish translation (I think this was an Imagination Library book), and it's a sweet and simple story about the love between a mama and her baby. I love the ways that different animal mothers are depicted with their babies, and that the book includes the names of each one. It's like they knew I didn't know that a koala baby is called a joey.

Summary:
This books is a sweet book about all of the reasons why children love their mommies. It has very adorable illustrations of mother animals and their young on each page. On the last page, it has an illustration of a mother and a young boy and ends the book with the phrase, "I love my mommy, and my mommy loves me."

Personal Reaction:
I found this book when my son was just a few weeks old and it perfectly described everything that I want to be for him. It has become one of our favorite show more books to read together.

Classroom Extensions:
Students could pick an animal that they felt described their mother/parent/guardian the best. They could then decorate it and write a sentence on why they believed that animal best described that person.
Another creative way would be to let the students take different traits from different animals and make up their own animal that they thought best described their mother/parent/guardian. show less

Although very basic and simplistic, this book is great to share and connect children with what mothers do. It is a great book to work into a lesson about mothers or about animals. The animals shown on each page also have a description above what the mom and baby is called for each specific animal. It is important for children to know, understand, and be grateful for all that their parents do for them, and sharing this book will help them to do so.