Dear readers: I have a confession to make.
I’m a monomaniac: I have an obsessive preoccupation with one thing:
Verbs.
As a parent and speech pathologist, I just can’t get enough of them. If I get through a single language assessment or therapy session without extolling, enthusing about, lauding, celebrating, waxing lyrical about, rhapsodising over, or just plain raving on about the power of verbs to accelerate language development, it’s a miracle.
Last year, we had a terrific response to our article: Books with verbs to level up your child’s language development: 24 of the best.
But there are so many more cracking verb-books we’ve discovered since then!
Here are 11:
- I Dreamt I was a Dinosaur by Stella Blackstone and Clare Beaton (dreamt, forage, teach, swim).
- Charlie and Lola’s Actions by Lauren Child (skip skip skipping, hop hop hopping, bouncing, squashing, s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g).
- Chatterbox by Margaret Wild (She twiddled her toes. She crawled. She played…she splashed…she built towers…she listened…she banged…she did everything but talk.)
- Za-Za’s Baby Brother by Lucy Cousins (I cuddled the baby…and I pushed him…and I built him a tower).
- Fergus in the Park by Tony Maddox (The best thing to do was…RUN!… “He’s going to catch me”…he jumped on a [skateboard]…he began to swim…the park keeper was climbing into a row boat…the ducks…with Fergus hidden in the middle…paddled slowly past the park keeper).
- Polar by Elaine Moss (Polar kicks back his rug and dresses himself…Polar pulls his toboggan…sits in his toboggan…slowly he slides…the sledge hits a hump and Polar comes tumbling…soon he is limping).
- Katie the Kitten by Alex Scheffler (She cleans off her paws…she bursts into song. Dancing and prancing, she miaows all night long!).
- Oh Dear! by Rod Campbell (Grandma asked Buster to fetch the eggs. So he went to the barn…went to the sty…went to the field…went to the stable).
- Pirate Piggywiggy by Christyan and Diane Fox (Hoist the mainsail, Teddy! On hot, sunny days we could walk the plank! At night-time we could sit around the fire singing sea shanties…On Crossbones Island we would search for treasure).
- Tadpole’s Promise by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross (That’s twice you’ve broken your promise. Forgive me…You have broken your promise three times and now you have broken my heart).
- The Penguin who wanted to fly by Catherine Vase (Flip-Flop climbed on top of Polar Bear and flapped his wings…he spun around and around…he waited and waited…the balloon floated upwards).
Prefer pretty pictures? Here’s the selection:
If you know of other verb-laced books we’ve yet to stumble upon, please holler, shout, alert, communicate, connect, message, email, Facebook, Tweet, correspond, or even just speak with us to let us know so we can add them to the list!
Related articles:
- Books with verbs to level up your child’s language development: 24 of the best
- Late-talkers: kick-start language with these verbs
- The Verb & Pronoun Workout
- “But he holded it and then he broked it and then he goed away!” Why do some children speak this way?
- Late talkers: how I choose which words to work on first
- Reading books with our babies, toddlers and preschoolers: everyone knows we should do it. Here’s why
- Reading with – not to – your preschoolers: how to do it better (and why)
- Speaking for themselves: why I choose ambitious goals to help young children put words together
Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
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