'I Think I Can' and Other Great Books For Toddlers
As printed in My Village News June 2020
I have a new reverence for a well-written children’s book. As a mum of a two year old I’ve surrendered to the fact I’ll read these simplified stories more than those on my bedside table over the next decade. But there are a lot of stinkers. Like those franchise character books, mostly garbage that waste a child’s precious attention span and rarely offer any moral lesson.
So when Dolly Parton announced at the start of isolation she’d be reading weekly bedtime stories in online videos I paid attention to her choices*. See on Dolly’s surface what you will, it’s undeniable she’s prolific. I am inspired by her strong sense of self and career achievements the 74 year old has composed more than 3000 songs.
Parton’s first pick was a book that inspired her success, a story that’s almost a hundred years old, The Little Engine That Could.
“When my dream seemed far away… I would close my eyes and think of myself as the Little Engine and just start saying over and over again, ‘I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.’ It gave me strength, it gave me hope, and it gave me the courage to keep chasing my dreams,” she says on her site.
The story had been around in various forms since the early 1900s but was made famous in the book written Arnold Muck under the pseudonym Watty Piper in 1930. Its enduring positive message is so relevant. The tale of the tiny train which successfully hauls a line of carriages over a mountain it’s never climbed before says to the reader believe in yourself, reach for your dreams, push the boundaries, challenge your fears, hard work and optimism pays off.
These are messages we all need to be reminded of – grown up, grandparent or child.
In case you’re interested, my top ten toddler book picks in no particular order:
The Little Engine That Could - Watty Piper
Elmer the Patchwork Elephant - David McKee
There’s a Tiger in the Garden - Lizzy Stewart
Any in the Little People, Big Dreams series
Any written by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
The Paper Dolls - Julia Donaldson
Lenny and the Ants - Jessica Chapnik Kahn
Wish You Were Here, Sunshine Coast - Leroy Sams & Frank Scrivano
Kissed by the Moon - Alison Lester
I Love You All Day Long - Francesca Rusackas (this is a great one for transitioning to daycare/kindergarten/school)
And some of my favourite Brisbane booksellers:
Scrumptious Reads, Paddington
Mary Ryans, New Farm
Archives Fine Books, Brisbane City
Folio Books, Brisbane City
Bent Books, West End
Avid Reader, West End
Where The Wild Things Are, West End
*Readers, the YouTube videos of seem to have now been removed from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library channel, I’m scratching my head as to why? And hoping my two year old doesn’t find out.
