Review: Goodnight Pumpkin - Written by Beynda Smith and Illustrated by Marie Sanders

On the lookout for a new New Zealand Picture Book to read to your child ?

Review: Goodnight Pumpkin – Written by Belynda Smith and Illustrated by Marie Sanders - 2012

Are you looking for a cute story to read your child? One that will teach them to learn to read and keep their attention long enough to listen to the story? When reading to a child especially one so young, there are three main things that a book should have.  Firstly , the book should contain bright and colourful pictures as the children don't yet know the words of the story, so they look towards the pictures to gain an idea of what might be happening and interpret into a way that only they understand and also the bright colours and pictures hold the child's attention. Secondly, when reading to a child the book should not be too lengthy as children only have a short attention span so the book needs to be just the right length to capture the child and hold their attention while you have it. Last but not least, the book should hold either rhyming or repetitiveness in the sentences. This way you are teaching the child words that they will remember and also as they reach about 3-5 years it is great to read the children books that they can read along and interact with and words that repeat themselves on every page or second page are great.

Goodnight Pumpkin tells the story of a little girl named Polly who when it’s time to go to sleep, she discovers that she isn’t actually tired and throughout the novel every time her mother puts her to bed and says Goodnight Pumpkin hoping it to be the last time, we turn the page and note that Polly is once again out of bed. The theme of “Goodnight Pumpkin” is one that all parents will be able to relate to as we are forever hearing the cries of the children shouting “I’m not sleepy” or “I don’t want to go to bed” or in this case “one more thing”.

The pages have been wonderfully illustrated by Marie Sanders , to capture the child’s interest and contains lots of different objects in which you can use to discuss with the child you are reading the story to and like most children’s picture books each page contains 10-20 words and every 6^th page repeats the same sentence “Goodnight Pumpkin, Stay in Bed” in which if you are reading to a group of children in the Storytime events held at your library , you can get the children to join in with you as you read .

Goodnight Pumpkin by Belynda Smith and Illustrated by Marie Sanders is a great read that can be used as a teaching tool to ages 3-5yrs about Bedtime routines or if you are having a themed event at the library e.g Bedtime stories. Goodnight Pumpkin is a great resource to add to your reading box.