She Sells Seashells by the Seashore: A Tongue Twister Story

With this storybook, youngsters will adore practicing their s and sh sounds.

I don't think of tongue twisters as books for beginning readers. I see them as books for developing pre-reading skills. That includes listening and speaking and just having fun with words. As pre-reading skills develop, talk about the initial sounds in words such as she sells seashells. Using this example, when the child is ready to learn the sound made by the letter "s," the child already knows delightful examples of the sound itself. I think there is an alphabet book of tongue twisters. I'm not sure of the name. I think books such as this one should be used before alphabet books.

I wrote in one of my reviews about how somewhere in the early years the humor gene just seems to turn on and little children become interested in knock-knock jokes and the like. Apparently, this same gene or a kindred one creates an interest in tongue twisters. My daughter can't seem to get enough, and now the whole family sits around reading them and laughing ourselves silly. Thus, I am more enthusiastic about this book than the teacher-reviewer who gave it only three stars. While I agree with her that it's a challenge, it's such a fun and such a different sort of book from the usual ones, that I think it deserves four stars. Some of the tongue twisters included are: She Sells Seashells, Peter Piper (picks a peck), Woodchuck, Betty Botter (bough a bit of bitter butter), and a host of smaller ones like: Six Sick Sheep. The twist provided by this author is that she combines them into a single storyline. Thus Silly Sally (of seashell fame) has a picnic with Peter Piper where upon they see "Five Fat Frogs Flying Fast". Whether it really works as a literary device is besides the point; it provides words that children can either read themselves, or to which they can listen. Four Stars. Nice Read-aloud. Okay art. Most first graders won't be able to read this, but they will have a blast with the tongue twisting anyway.