Duck on a Bike

Welcome to the first official post for the year. I hope your New Years celebrations were joyous and safe.
I've been thinking about which book should be the first post. Thanks to all of you, I have a great list of suggestions, and I've been stocking up on newer books from the library. In the end I decided to mention a few of the books Maya either received or gave for Christmas these first few days.
I'm not sure the first book will ever be as significant as say the first video ever played on MTV (The Who, right?) or the first band to ever take the stage at a Cornerstone festival (the choir), but luckily we gave an old favorite of mine to Riley, who is four years old and amazed us by "reading" the story to us (I did a reading also, so it counts).
Duck on a Bike , by David Shannon, is perhaps still my favorite read-aloud for storytime. Duck sees a bike sitting in the farmyard and, thinking it would be fun to ride, does just that. He gets progressively better as the book goes on, showing off his new skill to a different animal friend on each page. Suddenly a whole bunch of kids drop their bikes in the yard, and you can guess what happens.
The illustrations in this book are huge with no borders. Kids at the back of the room can see what's going on. There is a page with no dialogue, but the animals' big eyes say it all. There are animal noises to be made and repetition, which kids will pick up on the first time through. Don't skip over the end page, where you can ask, "What do you think Duck is thinking about that tractor?"
So that's our first review. A couple of you have said to be sure to tell what Maya's reaction is to each book. I'll try, but right now Maya's reaction to pretty much everything is "plllbbbbbttttt" (Patty calls these 'raspberries'). Thanks for all the suggestions. Keep them coming. We'll see you tomorrow.