Hands Can

A MUST for all children's libraries! I bought this book for my now 4-year-old when she was 18-months. She loved it then and has continued to enjoy it to this day. Now that she's a preschooler, she enjoys "acting it out." My 21-month-old has loved this book since she was around 8-months-old and she's very picky, but has always especially enjoyed books with pictures of kids and babies. I can remember her crawling across the floor to get to this book! The title was one of her first 2-word sentences. She, too, loves to act it out and we all know it so well we can sit around the dinner table and recite it together word for word.

We actually checked this book out from the library, and while I didn't think my 16-month-old daughter would be super impressed with this book, she proved me wrong. For the past 2 weeks, it's the book she demands to be read to her very first, before all other books. If it looks like she's not in the mood for book time, all I have to do is get this book out and she will instantly calm down and sit still for every single page. She loves mimicing the pictures: smearing finger paints, giving hugs, pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo, and waving hello and goodbye. She loves pointing to all the hands she can find, and since reading this book, she has taken a very keen interest in hands and fingers, which leads us to be able to practice counting our fingers. I would recommend this book to anyone, it's sure to be a favorite!

"Hands can clap while voices sing. Hands can do all kinds of things." Hands Can, by author Cheryl Willis Hudson and photographer John-Francis Bourke, is a celebration of the wonder of little hands. Hands Can describes and shows children using their hands in a variety of activities. It also shows a variety of hands. There are girl hands, boy hands, toddler hands, "big-kid" hands and hands of many races. Young children will love Hands Can, with its simple, rhyming text, bright colors and delightful photographs depicting children having fun with their hands. They will want to wave hello like the little boy in beginning of the story. They will want to play Peekaboo like the little girl near the end. They will want to read this book again and again.

This is a wonderful book with lots of pictures showing kids doing all kinds of activities like playing ball, planting seeds, etc...and the text is easy to follow for my 14-month old son. He LOVES this book and will go through a huge box of books to find this and will then come sit on my lap so I can read it to him for the 100th time that day. Get this book - it's very kid-friendly.

It's a beautiful example of how some wonderful words can sing with amazing photography of children. The layout of the book is bold & bright and an instant eyecatcher. The photos capture the joy of the children as if you were right there with them. My 3 year old loves to follow along & point out all the activities on the pages. Just great! Highly recommended!