BOOK REVIEW | Don't let the Pigeon Stay Up Late (with activity suggestions)

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Title: Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late
Author: Mo Williams
Summary: It's getting Dark, but the Pigeon won't go to bed! Will you let him stay up late?

I really enjoy reading books that allow me to interact a lot with the kids that I'm reading to. Half the fun of storytime is seeing their reactions when something unexpected happens. It's why I like a lot of Mo William's books.

His Pigeon series is a great set of books to use to get kids really interested in reading. They are short with not a huge amount of reading, which is perfect for younger children with limited attention spans. What is also great about them is that when you read them you can be as dramatic and silly as you want because they are written in such a what that the book becomes even more interesting when you do.

The pictures are very simple but that is the beauty of them. There doesn't need to be a lot of detail because the way you read the books with what is meant to capture their interest. The book is also extremely open to interaction with the children you're reading too because the Pigeon is basically asking the children if they can stay up later!

Activities

Once you have finished reading, you can then start talking with older children about their own bedtime routine. The things they like, the things they don't like and also why sleep is so important for you. It opens a dialogue so you can see if there is anything that they particularly don't like that can be changed - that is if it doesn't have anything to do with hygiene or anything like that.

For example, one child may say that they don't like it when the door is fully closed and would like it better if it was open just a little bit. Or they may not like how dark it is in their room and you can talk about setting up a light of some kind so that it doesn't seem as dark. Discussing these things helps to build their social and communication skills, also building trust between yourself and them as they open up about their likes and dislikes.

However, if you have younger kids who can't give detailed descriptions of what they like and what they don't like the above discussion might be a little hard. What you can do instead is go back through the book and see if you can identify emotions that the Pigeon is going through, or count the feathers that are flying around on pages 21, 22, 23, 25 and 30. You can also see how many hamburgers he's dreaming about or play spot the bunny. With the younger kids, you're working on their communication and social skills as well but you're throwing in counting and observation as well.

Some older kids may enjoy doing the counting and find-the-bunny as well.

After that is done you can then move onto a drawing/painting/collage activity where you get them to create what they think the Pigeon's bedroom looks like. They can be as creative or simple at the child wants and then once they are all created, the child can then talk about their picture and why they gave the Pigeon certain things.

If you're interested in getting the book, you can find it here.

Mo Williams has a lot of other books as well. You can find out more about him and all the books that he writes here.