Blue Hat, Green Hat (Boynton on Board)

Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute.

To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. Blue Hat, Green Hat was one of her picks.

Although ostensibly about colors, this book is subtly about much more. Clothes are put on an elephant, a bear, a moose, and a turkey. As you can imagine, putting clothes on a turkey is a challenge. So the turkey always has the clothes on in some strange way (shirt around tail feathers but not on legs, hat on the feet, pants...Read more

Well, the other animals seem to be able to put their clothes on (a task that takes quite a bit of early skill, as any parent or grandparent knows). But what about the poor rooster? Ooops! The poor thing just can't get it right.

This wonderful book is special on many levels. First of all, it tickles a toddler's funny bone like no other...listen to your child yell, "Ooops!" and break up laughing. Definitely a plus right there. Then, it subtly teaches colors (the blue hat is indeed blue, the green hat is indeed green, and so forth). And finally, it shows the child that it's OK to make mistakes, and that learning such a huge task as dressing oneself can be hard even for roosters!

Along with every other Boynton book I've ever seen, this one's a keeper.

My almost two-year old laughed and loved this book from the very first reading. He giggles at every "oops" every time, and is always saying "read again." An excellent book for helping children learn colors and articles of clothing, but most of all just a FUN book for parents to share with their kids. A great addition to our growing Boynton collection.