Beatrice> The following program is dedicated to Winnie the Pooh, a fictitious bear.

In the book House At Pooh Corner , Winnie is awakened by a strange noise and he thinks, "What can it be?"

He reasons, there are lots of noises in the forest, but this is a different one.

It isn't a growl and it isn't a purr.

And it isn't a bark.

And it isn't the noise you make before beginning a piece of poetry.

But it's a noise of some kind made by a strange animal.

And he's making it outside my door.

So, I shall get up and ask him not to do it.

We salute Mr.

Pooh's awareness, his curiosity, and his desire to understand the unknown.

♪ Oh I can believe ♪ ♪ in everything I read ♪ ♪ A little boy blue ♪ ♪ a lady with a shoe ♪ ♪ and a dish run off ♪ with a spoon ♪ ♪ Well Hickory Dickory Dock ♪ ♪ a scholar ♪ he's late to school ♪ ♪ And I like a cow ♪ ♪ I jump over the moon ♪ ♪ Rick> Babies are like tourists.

They're seeing things they've never seen before.

And while they may not have to worry about losing their traveler's checks, they've arrived without any preparation.

Things can be disconcerting when you don't speak the language When you have to learn strange new customs and traditions.

When everything is new.

Sometimes it gets very frustrating.

Adults often forget that the children have to learn the basic concepts of life on Earth.

When you're born, you don't know up from down, right from left, good from bad or mom from dad.

You've got to learn everything and you've got to learn it fast.

Incredible as it seems, we learn at least half of everything we'll ever know before we get to the age of four.

Most children don't start to read until they go to school.

But that doesn't mean that preschoolers can't enjoy books.

In fact, there are many books printed especially for young children who are trying to figure out what's going on in the crazy world around them.

This is a book called Circles, Triangles and Squares .

Which was put together by a photographer named Tana Hoban.

There are no words in this book, just photographs.

You don't have to be able to read to look for circles in a picture like this.

Those glasses.

And it's fun to notice that the lollipop is also a circle.

And the buttons on the shirt.

And if you look around, you might want to say something about that fence in the background.

It's all squares.

That's what this book is about.

Noticing shapes all around you.

The people who study children's books call books like this one concept books.

They're concept books because they are designed and created to explain various concepts to children.

Some of these books, like the Sesame Street Book of Shapes, deal with physical concepts that can be pictured clearly and simply.

Others, like Hooray For Me by Remy Charlip and Lillian Moore deal with abstract concepts like emotions.

Let's take a look first at the books which deal with physical concepts.

This is another work by Tana Hoban.

It's called Big Ones, Little Ones .

Hoban has illustrated several concept books with photographs.

In this one, she allows her readers to see the big-little pattern.

A simple concept that's easily understood by looking through the book.

Actually, there is no strict definition of a concept book.

It's simply a term which allows us to group these books together for discussion.

Several experts in children's literature have tried to explain the category of concept books.

In their textbook called Introduction To Children's Literature , Joan I. Glazer and Gurney Williams III say, "Concept books bring the everyday world into sharp focus for young children."

Glazer and Williams point out that "A jumble of data falls into patterns under the force of a general concept or idea.

The concept creates order out of the clutter, makes pieces fit."

Sometimes it takes a moment to figure out the concept.

This is a book called Fast-Slow, High-Low by Peter Spier.

It's a book of opposites.

His drawings are small and may require more careful study than the Hoban photographs.

On different pages, Spier presents various examples of several opposite concepts.

These two pages, feature the differences between off and on.

Once a child becomes aware of the concept illustrated on the page, all of the drawings become a kind of game.

As Glazer and Williams say, "the concept creates order out of the clutter."

Tana Hoban has also designed a book of opposites called Push-Pull Empty-Full .

In this book, she does include some simple words which reinforce the concepts being illustrated.

On opposing pages, Hoban places opposites such as empty and full.

Children can compare the two pictures and begin to draw their own conclusions.

Charlotte Huck is another expert who has written about the category of concept books.

In her text, Children's Literature In The Elementary School, Ms.

Huck states that "A concept book is one that describes the various dimensions of an abstract idea through the use of many comparisons."

She says that "in some respects, it is a young child's information book."

A book like Push-Pull, Empty-Full can help children to understand the meaning of words that are sometimes confusing.

Some books like, Quiet or Noisy?

That's a Good Question!

by Tobi Tobias deal exclusively with one concept.

In this case, it's the difference between silence and sound.

The many different examples all illustrate this one concept.

Peter Spier has a similar book called Crash!

Bang!

Boom!

which captures hundreds of different noises on paper.

Sounds that everyone has to deal with everyday.

Young children will enjoy this one more if someone reads it to them, because much of its charm comes from the silly sounds.

The onomatopoeia that Spier has created.

The... [making f sound] of a steam iron, the fudda, fudda, fudda, fudda of the movie projector.

And the denga, denga, denga-deng, denga-deng.

of the jackhammer.

Books like Crash!

Bang!

Boom!

can obviously help kids to understand the noisy complexity of the world around them.

In a text book called Children and Books , Zena Sutherland and May Hill Arbuthnot alert parents, teachers, and librarians to the importance of sharing concept books.

They say that in the... "early years of childhood, when the development of language skills is of paramount importance, and when the young child's curiosity creates an interest in all the relationships and categories of a complex world, one of the more difficult areas to master, is that of the abstract concept.

How big is 'big'?

How far is 'far'?

Time, distance, size, mass, color, shape.

And the difference between, 'between' and 'through' need to be clarified and amplified in books as well as in conversation."

That's what all these concept books are trying to do, to clarify and amplify basic concepts.

Often a concept book may illustrate several different concepts at the same time.

And clever adults will be able to use the same book for different purposes at different times in a child's development.

Look at Gobble, Growl, Grunt another book by Peter Spier, the man who created Crash!

Bang!

Boom!

In Gobble, Growl, Grunt there are hundreds of animals, and Spier uses onomatopoeia again to show how each makes a distinctive call or roar.

Some are familiar, like the turkey that says "gobble-gobble."

And the pig that goes "oink-oink."

But others are more unusual, like the walrus who says, "ouf-ouf!"

There's no doubt that Gobble, Growl, Grunt is a perfect book to have around both before and after a trip to the zoo.

The names of the various animals are printed in small italics near each animal, and adults can learn a lot too.

Especially if it's been a while since you tried to distinguish a whooping crane from an ibis or a marabou.

On the two pages with dogs, children can learn not only about the different sounds that dogs make, but they can learn about different breeds.

And about how different one kind of dog may look when compared with another.

And given a little encouragement kids will be able to point out the few animals, that don't belong on the pages.

Like this happy, quacking duckling who's perilously close to this panting pointer.

The simple concept that things make noises is presented in several other books.

Including Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern illustrated by Simms Taback.

It's a different kind of concept book.

One that tries to explain a concept by telling a story.

An old man named Peter, the hero of Too Much Noise, can't tolerate the small noises that surround him in his old house.

So he asks the wise man in the village to help him get rid of the noises.

The wise man tells him to get a series of animals who make more noise than the old house ever made.

When Peter returns to the wise man with his new complaints about the animal noises, the wise man tells him to let all the animals go.

Then Peter realizes that the small squeaks and creaks around his house are really insignificant and he's able to get a good night's sleep.

Too Much Noise introduces many sounds and animal noises, and at the same time introduces the concept of loud versus soft sounds.

Unlike fairy tales and nursery rhymes, concept books relate to the everyday world.

Joan Glazer and Gurney Williams III, point out in their text that "Experience with these concept books, is practice for dealing with the sometimes threatening data of everyday life.

'What is that noise on the stair?'

'I'm bigger than my brother, right?'

'Which way is left?'

Different concept books can help answer all these practical preschool questions."

In fact, using concept books can teach children another important concept that answers and examples can be found in books.

So if you're sometimes bothered by questions like, "what is green?"

Be advised that there are concept books to help you answer these little inquiries.

There are many concept books that deal with color as well as with other simple physical concepts like shapes, sizes, time, distances, and weights.

Sharon Lerner's book about colors entitled Orange Is A Color , is one example of a simple concept book.

It introduces primary colors and then tries to show how they blend to make other colors.

Ms.

Lerner's layout of these colors of the page can be confusing, however, when the splotches of color overlap they don't blend to make the new color.

They are inert discs with no indication of combination.

In another book, Colors by John J. Reiss, various objects, plants, and animals are shown as examples of the different colors.

For example, baby chicks are yellow as are lemons and bananas.

But Mr.

Reiss isn't as simple and straight forward as he could be.

This squash is supposedly yellow too but it is decidedly brownish against a truly yellow background.

Some of his selected examples are imaginative and instructive.

Eggplant is an unexpected but excellent example of purple.

But butterflies aren't always blue and they seem a poor choice to illustrate any one color.

Nonetheless, Zeena Sutherland in Children in Books identifies this Colors book as one of the best books on the subject.

She praises Reiss' use of repeated examples and various shades of a color.

Sutherland points out, "A frog is in several shades of green, a pale green snake coils through the darker grass and leaf shapes in a variety of forms are in several shades."

Sutherland points out that, "while there is no focus on the concept of size, the book also makes it clear that all red strawberries are not the same size.

That there are big and small robins with orange breasts."

Tana Hoban, the photographer, has published a book called Is it Red?

Is it Yellow?

Is it Blue?

On each page there's a brightly colored photo and readers are expected to identify the colors that are indicated at the bottom of the page.

For example, kids should be able to match the various colors in this huge sucker with the colored dots below.

For some reason, however, Ms.

Hoban just deals with six colors and ignores any others that might be in the picture.

These trash bags, for instance, most are black, yet there is no corresponding black dot on the page.

Some kids will enjoy the challenge and will want to point out the omitted colors.

For others, it may be confusing.

Still, another book about color is Leo Lionni's Little Blue and Little Yellow .

It's the story of a blue blotch who lives with Papa and Mama Blue, and whose best friend is Little Yellow.

After several different activities Little Blue and Little Yellow hug each other happily and hug each other until they are green.

They stay green until their parents are unable to recognize them.

And then their separate tears allow them to regain their original colors.

Many people consider Little Blue and Little Yellow a classic picture book.

While others have criticized its unusual presentation of hugging.

And how friendly colors can combine to produce new colors.

Donald Crews won a Caldecott Honor Award for his book Freight Train , which describes a train on a track while showing the various colors of the cars on the train.

Like the green cattle car, the blue gondola car, and the purple boxcar.

If colors aren't your problem, or if you've answered all the colorful questions for a while, you'll probably want to become familiar with some of the many books that deal with the concept of shapes.

John Reiss, who put together the Colors book that we looked at a few minutes ago, has also produced a popular book called Shapes .

It introduces children to geometric shapes through the use of brightly colored illustrations.

Sutherland and Arbuthnot also recommend this Reiss' book.

They note that Reiss "goes past the familiar circle, square, and triangle to include solid forms (showing how squares form a cube) and to more complex ones like oval and rectangle."

The presentation of these more complex shapes can be confusing for some very small children.

But as with any concept book, you'll have to decide if the text and illustrations are appropriate for the child who is reading the book.

Glazer and Williams encourage everyone to use concept books as often as possible.

They note that while entertaining most concept books also make intellectual demands on readers.

Simple concepts like colors and shapes aren't the only topics for concept books, however.

Many authors have dealt with natural phenomena.

Alvin Tresselt has written several concept books explaining various aspects of weather.

In 1946, he published Rain Drop Splash with pictures by Leonard Weisgard.

This book follows one set of raindrops from the day they fall until they reach the ocean.

The following year, in 1947, Tresselt wrote White Snow Bright Snow which was illustrated by Roger Duvoisin.

Duvoisin won the 1948 Caldecott Medal.

An award which is given each year to the publication, which is judged, the most distinguished picture book published in the United States.

White Snow Bright Snow tells the story of a snowstorm and how it affects a postman, a farmer, and a policeman, as well as children and rabbits.

The text and the illustrations are simple and direct, and the award winning paintings are complemented by lively prose that includes clever observations like automobiles look like big fat raisins buried in snow drifts.

Tresselt and Duvoisin collaborated again in the mid 1960s when they produced Hide And Seek Fog .

A book that shows how fog affects life in a seaside town.

Lobstermen and vacationing families have to endure several days of the worst fog in twenty years.

Another outstanding book that deals with simple concepts in nature is A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, with pictures by Marc Simont, who also won the Caldecott Medal for his artwork.

The book, originally published in 1956 explains how trees are a special part of the world.

It explains about forests and leaves and sticks and shade and picking fruit.

It's a lyrical and somewhat wistful treatment of trees.

A tree is nice to have a swing in or a basket of flowers.

It is a good place to lean your hoe while you rest.

That same artist, Marc Simont, also wrote and illustrated a droll little book called How Come Elephants?

Which explains why an elephant is a remarkable animal.

It's written in a long series of questions and answers about the animal.

It's funny as well as informative and cleverly drawn.

Get a load of these skinny legged hoodlums who try to feed the elephant an old shoe.

He gives it right back.

When concept books begin to deal with these more complex ideas and information, they often are presented in story form.

In I wonder What's Under by Doris Harold Lund with pictures by Janet McCaffery.

A little boy named Dudley asks his father to help him figure out all the things that are under his bed.

Once Dudley makes an inventory of all the toys and socks and pencils and marbles, his curiosity gets the better of him.

He wants to know what's under the rug and under the floor, and under the room below, and under the cellar below that.

It's a good book, unusually illustrated that encourages curiosity and explains the concept of under in a number of ways.

Like almost all of these concept books, I Wonder What's Under helps to develop language skills.

It's also a good bedtime book that quickly dispels fears of ghosts hiding in the darkness.

Some concept books are also game books with a built in challenge.

Most of Tana Hoban's books are like this.

Including, Over, Under and Through.

Even small children enjoy looking at the pictures and testing themselves.

Which is over, under, or through?

An English woman named Pat Hutchins wrote and illustrated Rosie's Walk, about a chicken pursued by a fox.

Rosie goes for a walk, and her path involves a series of prepositions.

Across, around, over, passed, through, and under.

Rosie's story is similar to a Road Runner cartoon, but the style is sedate and the presentation of the concept's well integrated into the story.

Kids will enjoy following the chase across the barnyard, whether they can read or not.

Tomi Ungerer has also created a concept book with a challenge.

His 1962 work called Snail, Where Are You?

is a collection of wonderfully silly pictures with no words.

You've got to find the snail like coils in each of the drawings.

A similar book, But Where Is The Green Parrot?

by Thomas and Wanda Zacharias, is a translation of a German book.

It challenges its readers to point out the green parrot in a series of brightly colored and intricate drawings.

It forces children to concentrate on each of the pictures until the parrot can be spotted.

Brian Wildsmith, a British illustrator has created several brightly colored books for young children, including one called Puzzles , which might be considered as a kind of concept book.

Wildsmith's text includes direct questions about the paintings on his pages.

For example, he asks, "How many animals can you see in this picture?"

And "Which child took an apple to bed with him?"

The puzzles focus children's attention and demand concentration.

Wildsmith has also produced another concept book full of opposites.

It's called What the Moon Saw , and it's a dialog between the moon and the sun about the many things on Earth.

A city with many houses and buildings.

As opposed to a village with few houses.

The difference between a big forest and a little flower.

The difference between a cheetah that's fast and a tortoise that's always slow.

Unfortunately, Wildsmith's sun and moon ignore size and spatial differences in many of their opposites.

The light bird looks nearly as large as the heavy elephant.

And the thin lizard isn't much smaller than the fat hippopotamus.

Small children may be misled by some of these size discrepancies So What the Moon Saw, might be more appropriate for an older child who already understands that lizards aren't as large as hippos.

Obviously, not all concept books are for preschoolers alone.

Some can be relatively complex in their presentation of ideas.

Look at Leo Lionni's book A Color of His Own, the story of a chameleon.

Lionni introduces several animals of various colors and then explains that a chameleon changes his color depending on where he is.

Lionni has been criticized for making his lizard adapt to colors which are impossible for a real chameleon to duplicate.

The concept of color obviously took precedence over the concept of true chameleons in this case.

It's all the more confusing because Lionni's style is rather straight forward.

He doesn't seem to be whimsical when he shows his chameleon turning polka dotted.

On the other hand, Eric Carle, an award winning author-illustrator also did a book on chameleons.

It deals with several different concepts.

It's titled The Mixed Up Chameleon , and it's intended for a slightly older audience as well.

It tells the story of a fantastic chameleon who changes more than just his color.

When he wanders into a zoo, he starts to change his size, his shape, and his very nature as well as his pigmentation.

Carle uses specially cut pages which systematically reveal the various animals involved on the left and the colors on the right.

The chameleon is in the middle, looking more and more like a monster.

The illustrations are colored as if with crayons, bright crude blotches of color.

The mixed up chameleon is obviously not a realistic portrayal of a chameleon.

but it is an imaginative and unusual book that could become a favorite.

That same artist, Eric Carle, also created a book called The Grouchy Ladybug.

It uses die cut pages to increase the novelty of its story.

Carle first shows what an aphid is and then explains that ladybugs like to eat aphids.

In this book, he starts out on a more factual basis.

He then tells a story of a grouchy ladybug who refuses to share an aphid covered leaf with a friendly ladybug.

The grouchy ladybug doesn't want to fight about it because the friendly ladybug is such a small opponent.

The grouchy ladybug wants to fight somebody bigger and flies away to find a larger adversary.

Using the specially cut pages, Carle introduces the concepts of size, time, and the daily cycle of the sun among other topics.

There's a set of clocks at the top of the pages, and readers can see the sun rising til noon and then slowly setting.

Each of the pages presents a bigger creature until the grouchy ladybug meets a whale which fills several pages because of its size.

The last page of the whale consists of a large tail flipper which slaps the grouchy ladybug so hard that it lands back on the leaf where it began.

Obviously, The Grouchy Ladybug is a concept book for an older set of children who can understand the several different concepts presented at once.

Even with all these concept books to help the world is still often a very confusing place.

There's more to living than just shapes and colors and sizes.

Some concept books try to grapple with more difficult concepts like emotions.

You'll probably want to take a look at Terry Berger's book called I Have Feelings, with photographs by I. Howard Spivak.

The book presents a series of situations small, ordinary occurrences that any kid might experience.

And tries to explain the feelings that could result from these situations.

The presentation is simple and clear.

Here's one situation.

Every Saturday my mother takes me shopping.

One time I show her a game that I really want.

She won't buy it for me.

I feel that my mother does not love me.

Then on the next page, there's a change in feelings.

As we drive home, we talk and laugh.

I know that my mother really cares for me.

I didn't get the game, but nobody can get everything he wants.

There are good feelings as well as unpleasant ones in the book.

And the photographs and situations can help explain the concepts of mixed up emotions to young children.

Not all the concept books which deal with emotions are for so sophisticated an audience.

Some books try to explain emotional concerns to very little children.

Dorothy Carey's book You Go Away , illustrated by Lois Axeman, tries to explain how people depart and return.

People disappear when you play peek-a-boo but come back right away.

Everybody leaves for short periods of time.

The book tries to dispel fears of rejection and abandonment.

Even in the supermarket, you go away... and you come back.

In a book called There Was Nobody There , Barbara Bottner deals with the same fear of abandonment as well as with the confusing aspect of dreams, which seem so real.

After the bizarre landscapes of the dream world.

The heroine of the book finds out that mom and dad haven't forgotten their daughter even though it seemed like she was alone.

We've talked about a lot of books very quickly in this program.

There are undoubtedly many others, many of them very good, that we haven't been able to include.

New concept books are being published every month.

Keep your eyes and ears open.

Read reviews.

Get to know as many concept books as you can.

As with any kind of book, concept books should be selected carefully with a reader or readers in mind.

It usually takes only a few minutes to look through a concept book, and much can be determined at a quick glance.

Ask yourself, are the pictures effective or confusing?

Is it easy to understand the concept?

Does the book look like fun or are you bored already?

If you take the time to look at the books available, you'll learn quickly to pick out the better ones.

If your child understands a certain concept, move on to the more complex books.

You don't want to insult the kid's intelligence.

When you're selecting a concept book, you may want to remember what Sutherland and Arbuthnot say in their text.

"While concept books cannot be judged by exactly the same criteria as books that have a storyline, It is easy to determine the effectiveness of some.

Books about shapes or colors can be evaluated for their pictorial success or failure.

While books that deal with emotions must be assessed for the effectiveness of the text, and that involves making a subjective judgment."

When you share a concept book with a child, remember that you're trying to help him see relationships and ideas that are often taken for granted by adults.

You may have to remind yourself that there was once a time when you couldn't remember left from right.

And always remember that one of the most important concepts that you can teach a child is that books are important, and that above all else, reading is one of life's great pleasures.

♪ ♪ ♪ Oh I can believe ♪ ♪ in everything I read ♪ ♪ A little boy blue ♪ ♪ a lady with a shoe ♪ ♪ and a dish run off ♪ with a spoon ♪ ♪ Well Hickory Dickory Dock ♪ ♪ a scholar he's late ♪ to school ♪ ♪ And I like a cow ♪ ♪ I jump over the moon ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh, Jack, he was so quick ♪ ♪ He jumped the candlestick ♪ ♪ ♪ And old King Cole ♪ ♪ too merry his soul ♪ take black burns up in a pipe ♪ ♪ ♪ I wonder Mother Goose ♪ ♪ how does your garden grow?

♪ ♪ ♪ How did that cow ♪ ♪ he jumped over ♪ ♪ he jumped over the moon ♪ ♪