So stuck on Stick Man

Stick Man is currently our favourite book because it's funny and clever and actually makes you realise how useful sticks are.

Amy and Ned gave it to Benji for his second birthday, along with Harry the Dirty Dog, which incidentally I vividly remember reading when I was a kid. Benji can only manage 2 pages of Harry before he gets distracted by something else (like Stick Man). My research to date indicates that active little 2 year old boys like rhyming and colour and movement in pictures (Harry has neither).

Stick Man's got everything: it rhymes, it has colourful pictures, it has the word "pooh" in it, it has a Dad in it (any book with a Dad in it is a hit with Benji) and last but not least Santa makes an appearance as do presents and a Christmas tree.

Stick Man lives with his stick family in a tree and goes out for a jog one day. He is picked up by a dog who plays fetch with him. Then a girl picks him up and throws him into a river. He floats downstream and is picked up by a swan who uses him to build a nest... and so on. At every turn Stick Man begs to go back to the family tree with his Stick Lady Love and stick children three. Things get a bit hairy when he ends up in a fireplace but fortunately for him, Santa saves the day by taking him by sleigh back to his family. The final illustration is Stick Man dancing around his lounge room with his family under the mistletoe and holly.

The thing I like the most about this book though is that Benji calls it "Sticker Man".

We read Stick Man tonight. The phone rang just as Santa was coming down the chimney, which Benji just had to go and investigate. We returned to Things I Like - a great book because it actually does list everything Benji likes, such as painting, acrobatics, swimming, parties and birthday cakes.

I have a voucher for $16.46 from Readers' Feast and it's a work day tomorrow so I may well go and buy a book at lunchtime. They've got one about penguins there which looks pretty good...

** Stick Man is by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

** Harry the Dirty Dog is by Gene Zion, illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham.

** Things I Like is by Anthony Browne.