My Baby Sister Is a Diplodocus: Q&A with Aurore Petit

Aurore Petit

Aurore Petit was born in 1981, one of a generation of French illustrators to emerge from the influential School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg. She lives in Nantes, where she publishes children’s books, illustrates for children and adults and works on theatre sets. Her books with Gecko Press are A Mother Is a House and… Read more »

Reading Aloud in the Babysitter’s Toolbox

Stories of the Night

Reading aloud is a key tool in a babysitter’s kit. It can bring children together from different parts of the house, calm them or cheer them up, signal that it is sleep time—your choice of book and how you read will depend on what is needed.

Read on for reading aloud tips for all babysitting scenarios.

Adding your own story to Mihi

Mihi

Mihi is Gavin Bishop’s beautiful new baby book that introduces ideas of me and my place in the world in the shape of a simple mihi or pepeha.

Gavin Bishop shares his mihi and how you can you the book Mihi to guide you to create your own.

Classroom read-alouds for all ages

A book read aloud in the classroom can stay with a child for a lifetime. I can still conjure the beautiful Scottish voice of one brilliant reader-alouder from my primary school, forty years later. My children frequently recommend books their teachers have read them—and hunt them down for re-reading. They both went to Te Kura… Read more »

How to read with babies by Elaine Reese

Tickle My Ears. Best Boardbooks

New parents hear advice about what’s best for their baby on a daily, even hourly basis. One popular piece of advice is “Read to your baby!” Yet no one ever seems to tell new parents how. It’s not easy to read to a baby, especially a newborn. I remember the first time I tried to… Read more »