Articles Parenting - General Our Top Five Authors/Illustrators for 0-3's
| Our Top Five Authors/Illustrators for 0-3's |
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| Tuesday, 04 March 2008 07:28 | |
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Young babies require contrast and bright colours to attract their attention and allow them to differentiate between the objects on a page. This also assists older babies and toddlers to identify stylised drawing as they are devoid of distracting detail. I have used this criteria when selecting these author-illustrators.
Dick Bruna Dick Bruna has been around for fifty five years and is most famous for his "Miffy" series of books. Bold bright illustrations, with bold coloured backgrounds attract even the youngest of babies to his stylised pictures. Bruna relies on familiar objects and characters to create his memorable Miffy series. Miffy has now been turned into a TV series. Lucy Cousins Lucy Cousins is the "newcomer" of this set although she's been around for about ten years. Best known for her character Maisy, now the subject of a children's television series, she has written and illustrated numerous books. Cousins uses bold black outlines and bright colours to illustrate the simple text of her books. My favourite Lucy Cousins books for six month olds to two year olds would be Maisy Likes Playing and Maisy Likes Driving. My favourite for eighteen month olds to three year olds would be Hooray for Fish!. Eric Hill Parenting magazine said that no childhood would be complete without a Spot book and I think they are right. Eric Hill's illustrations are detailed enough to provide context and images beyond just the key characters, but the bold pictures and plain white background make the pictures easy to define, and there are few enough details on the page that you can label each one without the book-reading time taking too long. My favourite Spot book for the under threes is Hello, Spot! which is a lift-the-flap cloth book. This is a lift the flap book that you can leave with your one or two year old without fear that it will be destroyed, and our copy has survived several trips through the washing machine. I'd also recommend Good Night Spot for younger readers, for its board book format and short text. Of the paper Spot books, my favourite for little kids would have to be the original - Where's Spot?. We also love Spot Goes to the Farm. Rod Campbell Dear Zoo has been pleasing young children for over twenty five years! It's lift-the-flap interactivity, brief text and entertaining story make for a classic children's book. The simple, bold illustrations are essential for allowing small children to focus on the pictures and see where the animal begins and the background ends. This is one book I insisted we have for our children and was my first daughter's favourite for years. John Butler John Butler is an author and illustrator. His books use rhyme and predictable text along with beautiful illustrations, making them a pleasure to read. While You Were Sleeping is about what animals do while we sleep and, the first one we read Can You Cuddle Like a Koala, is all about animal actions. His newest book Can You Growl Like a Bear? is on my list of books to borrow from the library. |
