Ben's Pick of the Week: Water in the Park

My girls are obsessed with playgrounds, so I actually borrowed this book for them - so they could pour over the drawings of the swings and slides.  But, things don't always go as planned.

Instead of my girls, my son was the one who wanted to read this one over and over.  Water in the Park goes through the day in the life of a park - from the early morning when the turtles rest on the rock ponds and people walk their dogs, though the morning of children playing on the jungle gym and eating snacks, to the workers eating their lunches, to after-school ice cream treats, and finally to late night strollers.  It is a good way to talk about the different times of day - and what we do throughout the day.  My son is just starting to get a good grasp for the concept of time - and he has always been interested in the sequence of the day and order of events.  He also enjoyed the water focus of the book - from the turtle pond, to sprinklers, to a light-rain.

The illustrations in the book are complex - a lot going on in each panel - so this allowed for a great deal of conversation while reading the book - about what each person in the book is doing, where they might be coming from and going to, what we do at the park, etc. etc.  I love when books surprise me, and this one definitely falls into that category!