Friday, January 30, 2009

Knick Knack Paddy Whack by Steve Songs

Title: Knick Knack Paddy Whack
Author: Steve Songs
Illustrator: Christiane Engel
Reading Level: Baby - Preschool
Hardcover: 24 pages
Publisher: Barefoot Books

This old man, he played one,  
He played knick knack on his drum
With a knick knack paddy whack 
give the dog a bone
this old man came rolling home.

Here comes a wonderful picture book with colorful illustrations of children parading with different musical instruments to the popular nursery rhyme "Knick knack paddy whack". Starting out with the old man playing a drum and one child, each page adds one more child (with a different instrument) leading up to ten children in the last page. The verses are slightly altered to make it more fun and appealing to the children like the old man plays "seven" by the "oven" while kids are waiting on the table for the pizza in the oven. And the children "ate" pizza as the old man played "eight" and so on. And, there is a cute little dog chasing or chewing or snatching a bone on every page to make it more interesting for the toddlers. 

My daughter loves this book ever since I read (actually, sang) it to her and she won't put it down unless she has looked at it at least a couple of times. Even though she finds it a little hard to differentiate between a saxophone, a clarinet and a trombone, she loves to look at the different musical instruments and has so much fun figuring out what is what. The illustrations are so captivating that it doesn't come as a big surprise when my little one wants to look at it over and over again. 

Though I love the book, I was a little disappointed with the CD that accompanies it. It has only 3 songs (or two?) by Steve Songs and pretty much nothing else. Anyway, if you have been singing this nursery rhyme to your baby, this book would be a great addition to their library.

My Rating: 4/5



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