Does Your Kindergartner Struggle with Beginning Reading Skills?
Ball Begins With B!
The Cow That Went OINK
A birthday isn't just any ordinary day, it's a time to celebrate a year of life, a year of growth, a year of accomplishment. A birthday is also a chance to look ahead, to a year of opportunity. Help us celebrate our 20th birthday together as we change the lives of children through literacy. It all starts with just one book, just one story, and just one child.
We are thrilled to introduce our 2025 Book of the Year, Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton. On this page, you will find ideas of how you can help your child bring this story to life. We encourage you to pull this book out often and engage with your child. Happy reading!
Take a picture walk with your child and flip through the pages. Talk about what you see on each page.
You might say:
“The cover of our story is bright and yellow. There is a circle here. Can you pat the circle? Let’s turn the page and see what comes next.”
Encourage your child to help turn each page as you read, using hand-over-hand assistance if necessary. Older infants may be able to point to what they see on each page.
You might say:
“Do you want to help me turn the page? Ooh, I see a blue monster on this page! Can you help me find him?”
Use self talk and descriptive vocabulary to explain what you are doing as you read.
For example:
“I am turning this thick, square page to see what comes next. I see furry, colorful monsters. Watch me as I count them … one, two, three, four, five. Five big and silly monsters!”
Begin to introduce beginning sounds of words.
“That sure was silly story about monsters! Can you say mmm-monsters? Yes!”
Focus on babble and beginning sounds throughout your routines together during the day, e.g.: diapering, feeding, bathing.
“It’s time to take your b-b-bath! Can you say bath?”
Before reading the book, sit with your toddler and let him explore the book. Let him hold the book and flip through the pages. This will help with fine motor skills, which are important for writing development later.
Introduce the title and front cover of the book and encourage your toddler to point to the pictures.
You might say:
“The name of this book is Birthday Monsters! (Point to the words as you read the title). I see a hole in the front cover with a picture of happy monsters behind it. Can you touch the monsters? Let’s touch and count them. One … Two …. Three! Three monsters smiling at us!”
Introduce shapes as you explore the cover together.
“The hole in the cover looks like a circle. Let’s use our fingers to trace the circle together. We start at the top and go down and around! You did it! You traced the circle.”
Ask your toddler to point to, name or describe pictures in the story. Introduce new words and explain their meaning.
“The book says they used his breakfast as confetti. Confetti are little pieces of paper that you throw in the air at a party or celebration. That’s silly to throw breakfast cereal! Those silly monsters!”
Sing the “Happy Birthday” song with your child and pretend to blow out candles together. Once you have sung the song a few times, change the song to make it your own with rhyming words. As you sing, talk about the words that you hear:
“Happy Birthday to you, you’re about to turn two, so blow out your candle, for your big birthday crew! Wow, did you hear the rhyming words? (Pause and wait for a response). Yes! You, two and crew all rhyme. The ending sounds the same. Great listening!”
Continue to make up new lines and listen for the rhyming words together.
Encourage your preschool child to predict what the story will be about or what might happen next.
“The front of our book looks like a celebration! What do you think our book will be about? (Pause and wait for your child to respond.) Let’s read the title and see if that gives us any hints. Hmmm …. Birthday Monsters! What do you think these monsters will do to celebrate a birthday?”
Point to the words as you read them, modeling how to read from left to right on a page. Over time, your child may mimic you and also point to the words as you read. You also want to make sure you are modeling fluent reading, using expression and changing your voice for different parts of the story (e.g. the bold, all-caps lines in the story).
Children build their understanding of phonological awareness by listening to stories, poems and songs that have rhyming or alliteration. After reading the story, engage your child in a fun, music and movement activity.
“I noticed that the monsters were wearing birthday hats in the story to celebrate. Let’s pretend to have on party hats and sing together. Don’t forget to listen for words that rhyme.”
Sing to the tune of Hokey Pokey
“You put your party hat in. You put your party hat out.
You put your party hat in and you shake it all about.
You do the Celebration Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around.
That’s what it's all about!”
Discuss the parts of the book: the front cover, back cover and title on the front page.
You might say:
“I see the letter E in the title on the cover! Your name begins with an E! Can you find another letter that you know on the cover of the book?”
As you read, draw attention to the rhyming words in the story. Emphasize the words to help your child hear the two words that sound the same at the end.
“Listen as I read this page … See if you can guess what word might come at the end!” (examples: clock/knock, down/town, ready/confetti, eight/wait, best/rest)
Ask your child to retell a part of the story by describing what happened at the beginning, middle and end.
“That sure was a silly story! Let’s look back through the pictures and you can tell me what happened.” You can also ask your child to make connections from the story to their own experiences. “Did this silly story about the Birthday Monsters remind you of anything that you’ve done? Have you ever eaten cake or gotten presents for YOUR birthday?”
Encourage your child to draw a picture relating to the story that they just heard. It might be a picture of their favorite character from the book, an event from the story or just something in their life that the book reminded them of, e.g. a birthday party, eating cake, etc. If your child has a solid understanding of letters and sounds, you might encourage labeling his or her picture with a beginning sound (“c” for cake or “m” for monster).
“Let’s draw a picture from the story. Do you want to draw a picture of your favorite monster? What color was he? Can you think of a letter we could write next to your picture to label it?”
Check out more of our exploring recommended books, activities and parent articles to engage your child and build your child’s reading skills at home.