Share by Anthea Simmons and Georgie Birkett
Random House Australia, 2011. ISBN 978 1742750996.
(Ages 3-5) A board book for the very young is aimed
specifically at teaching younger children to share. The young girl
and
her baby sibling are separate entities at the start of this tale, as
the girl tells us how she loves her fluffy teddy, and her books of
animals and her puzzle, but so does the baby and so mum's voice off
page calls out that she must share her things, despite what happens
to
them as a result. Many children will identify with the young girl
dismayed at her younger sibling's messing her things, and identify
the
voice calling out for them to share. After a few pages, the girl
asks
her mother whether she should share, changing the premise for the
story. So the two begin to share things, her drink and her paints
and
her bath, and the girl begins to lessen her resistance to her
sibling's
interference.
At the end, the two are in bed together, and the baby asks the girl
to
share his bed, with the pair sharing their mother's hugs at the end.
This is a wholly delightful little tale, teaching the idea of
sharing,
and making it easier for the adult reading the book to the children
to
introduce the idea of sharing and pointing out the ways of sharing
that
can happen in a family.
Fran Knight