Thursday, September 10, 2009

Hear Me Read: Hide the Baby (The Birth of Moses)

Hear Me Read: Hide the Baby (The Birth of Moses) is written by Mary Manz Simon and illustrated by Dennis Jones. This clever book uses only 16 words to tell the beloved story of Moses' birth. We've read this book so many times already that my three year old knows it by heart.

This is an excellent book for early readers. It uses the following words: a, of, oh, are, God, the, you, baby, care, hide, hush, take, will, sleep, coming, soldiers. I like to point to each word as I read the story to my daughter so she will learn the sight words and be able to recognize them elsewhere.
The text is repetitive, and has a nice rhythm when read aloud:

"Oh, a baby.
Hush, baby, hush.
Sleep, baby, sleep.
God will take care of you."
The story is told as much through the vivid illustrations as it is through the text. It may be nice to talk about the story in more detail with your child after reading this book. As the soldiers are coming, and baby Moses is being placed into the water, and even as the princess is comforting the crying Moses, your child will see that God was still in control and caring for Moses.

What I Like: I really like the way the text and the illustrations work together. Because this book uses only 16 words, it can't go into too much detail, so the illustrations work in this capacity. As you may have realized after reading my word list, the word "Moses" is never used. Without my extra explanation, my daughter wouldn't have realized that this was the story of Moses, but this doesn't make me like the book any less.

What I Dislike: Nothing to dislike in this book as an early reader. Children will be so excited that they can read through the entire book.

Overall Rating: Very good.

Age Appeal: 4-8, but a younger child learning to read will also enjoy this book.

Publisher Info: Concordia Publishing House, 1991; ISBN:0570047021 ; Paperback $2.39.

Buy it Now at Christianbook.com for $1.99.

OR Buy it at Amazon.com for $2.39.

Special Info: Here is another book we've reviewed by Mary Manz Simon.



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