read Iggy Peck’s book out loud!

Every parent knows that how a book READS is a very important part of being satisfied with our daily story time routine.  A good message can be ruined by sappy story-telling, and ignored by just plain bland sentence structure. I need me some flow, some rhythm, and lots of big words to sink my teeth into. I’m such a sassy smarty-pants (and closet thespian, perhaps?). But I somehow feel certain that the grander the words and the vibe, the sassier and smarty-paantier my daughter will be (yes, I know that’s bad grammar, but it had the right flow and rhythm, as noted above).

Thank heavens for books like Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty ($16.95). The illustrations, by David Roberts, are hilarious – and filled with sweet references to the Modernist greats in architecture and in fashion (the mother and the teachers have a snazzy style sense!). But it’s the rhymes that are sublime:

Young Iggy Peck is an architect

and has been since he was two,

when he built a great tower, in only an hour –

with nothing but diapers and glue

“Good Gracious, Ignacious!” his mother exclaimed,

“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”
But her smile faded fast as a light wind blew past

and she realized those diapers weren’t clean!

The story of Iggy’s crazy architectural contraptions runs aground when his 2nd grade teacher is not amused, nor enthused, by his passion. But, in the style of all great children’s book, Iggy’s fast-thinking saves them from a grand catastrophe. I won’t spoil the book’s ending, I think instead it’s time to find this book for yourself!