As a teacher and grandmother, I found Carol Moore’s books to be the perfect way to engage my students and my grandchildren in developing a love of reading. The delightful stories of the animal friends capture the attention of even the youngest children and the valuable life lessons provide a starting point for many discussions about kindness, friendship, compassion and diversity.
The books are a great tool for helping children learn to read and read to learn. The wonderful illustrations by Michael Harrell draw the children into the narrative and are perfect for young children to use in retelling the story they heard read aloud. The words used in the stories paint a picture in the minds of the children and enrich their vocabularies. Older children love to learn more about the real creatures that are represented by the characters by reading the nonfiction section in the back of each book.
I have learned so much about the animals of North Florida by reading these books and discussing the information in the books with my grandchildren. After reading Papa Mole’s Secret of Happiness, they tried to convince their grandfather that moles were important and not a problem when they dug tunnels through the yard. They talked about Busy Bumble Bee and his friends as they put honey on their biscuits. We looked for live oak trees and yellow pines in our yard and found a gopher turtle and red tailed hawk as we took walks together.
Carol Hair Moore’s books from her I Wish You Ice Cream and Cake series are a treasure that you will want to share with all of the children in your life!
