Swapsies Hardcover – 2 Nov 2017

I love this book! Fang loves sock but he's got a little bored of sock when he sees his friends' toys, who kindly let him swapsies because they are good friends and good at sharing but then he misses his toy again. There's a good level of modelling good behaviour when it comes to appropriate go there is the current developmental argument that young children shouldn't be made to share their most favourite toy with others- but to the books defence the children involved aren't pressured and seem happy to try each other's toys out. Though I do feel a bit sorry for Phillip at the end.My daughters are at that stage where the toddler is venturing into her older sister's toys (or what she perceives to be just hers) and it's causing disagreements which is natural in siblings, but this book was helpful to my 4 year old to remember that it's nice to share with her sister, after all she does swapsies her sisters baby toys! Not only does it promote sharing but it's perfectly pitched to encourage beginning readers to show off their skills. This is working at the stage of phonics incorporating digraphs such as ng, ph, sh ; long vowel sounds ai, ow, oo, ee, ue etc and silent/magic e.Short succinct sentences; Fang loves Sock; Sock is yellow; Sock smells like bananas etc with a repetitive pattern throughout as Fang gets excited by new toys such as train and ball to help children predict and feel comfortable with the structure of the sentences. There's few tricky words and a child friendly vocabulary which enables access too.My 4 year old could read this when prompted which shows it's nicely pitched to help consolidate those phonics skills.There's much that can be done with this book whether in an academic literacy setting or just at home for fun. Labelling children's own favourite toys with the same grouping that the little ones in the book did, colour; adjective about texture and/or movement/sound ; smell; and adjective/synonym for great plus the obvious to inspire talking about sharing behaviours.Overall a very good book and we love the character of Fang too.

My son has loved this from the moment it arrived and he's just now turned 3. He frequently "tells" the story himself by turning the pages over as it's simple in language and style and he can follow the gist from the pictures (if not memory). It tells the story of Fang who loves his sock but also likes the look of his friends' toys. Eventually though a "swapsy" goes wrong and Fang makes a mistake. Allows opportunities to discuss what Fang has done wrong and how he can put it right. Allows sentence development too with simple subject, verb, object sentence organisation. All in all super for very small ones from 2 and moving into that age 4 range for more independence.

A lovely little book about a wolf and his sock, or in other words, the story of many young children how love and possess and learn to keep, share and not have.It's a great story, the illustrations simple and as intended - very effective, while the words of the story, easy to digest and repeat and take in for little minds.This review is for the soft cover version, which is the usual oversized, square format for young children that they're used to with so many adopting the style.Highly recommended.

This is a beautifully illustrated book. It tells the story of Fang, a wolf I believe, but a cute one (and possibly a character from one of the author's other books "A Tale of Two Beasts"), who loves Sock. Fang then sees his friends with other toys and "swapsies" them for Sock. Quite a simple story really which hopefully shows that sharing toys isn't so bad as youngsters like my 3-year-old are not necessarily very good at sharing.It is beautiful, and should appeal to the target audience although short at no more than 5-minutes in length