Richard Scarry will always have a very special place in our hearts as his books have gotten us through teething, terrible twos, threenager threes and now online schooling. We were gifted our first Richard Scarry – “The best word book ever” when my son was 1.5 years old and have since then bought many more books by the author.
I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say that these have been amongst our best buys for the simple reason that they are so engaging, and have kept my child busy for hours just picture reading them by himself or to his nanny, which has been a complete lifesaver during the pandemic. In fact, whenever I need to work, I hand my 5 year old a Richard Scarry Book, and I know it will keep him busy for half an hour at least! Every child (and parent!) needs to have at least one Richard Scarry book in their library!
Best Word Book Ever: This is indeed the best word book ever, and the only book you will ever need. It covers everything you can think of from the basic apple and ball to kitchen utensils like spatula and colander, tools like hammer and spanner, and much much more. While it may seem that a word book is meant only for toddlers, Richard Scarry has made the illustrations so engaging that my 4 year old loves it dearly still. It takes him (and me) into a world of make believe, that only Richard Scarry can! Each page tells a story with the illustrations, and kids can get lost for hours just looking at them.
Also available in this format – Richard Scarry’s Best Little Word Book Ever (Little Golden Book) Hardcover (24 pages)
Cars And Trucks And Things That Go: This is probably our favourite Richard Scarry book, and if you have a toddler who likes vehicles this one is bound to become a quick favourite. It is a story about the Pig family going on a vacation, and all the different vehicles they see on the way, including emergency vehicles, repair trucks, all types of delivery trucks, construction vehicles and even some made up vehicles! As a bonus, each page has a goldbug hidden, and kids love looking for it.
#kbcMember Kausar Makki also recommends this book. Excerpts from her review in the fb group:
Avan loves vehicles and Richard Scarry. So I was glad to be able to get this book. This is a story about the Pig family going on a trip and all the vehicles they encounter along the way. Though the story is not much, we love the extensive coverage of the vehicles including snow vehicles. Our favorite is Mistress Mouse And Her Repair Truck. Also we like finding goldbug. Our activity based on this book was to make a diy cardboard road. We used cardboard boxes, cut them up, little one helped paint them. Masking tape made the road lines, tissue paper rolls cut up into quarters for the speed bumps. We had a host of road signs left over from our birthday celebration which we used. Easy and fun way to teach road signs, emergency vehicles, how to cross the road, road etiquette etc. For vehicle crazy little ones, you can’t go wrong with Richard Scarry.
What Do People Do All Day?: Achira shared a detailed review with inside pages in our facebook group here. Excerpts:
This is one book that beautifully covers many different aspects or topics from our day to day life. More like how a community functions. Teeny tiny details of each community helper! What do people do in a busy town? From farmers to grocers to policemen to firemen to doctors, everything is illustrated in a very simple and interactive way! Then there are topics like building a new road, wood and how we use it and many more interesting stuff! Me and my kids totally loved it because it gave us a chance to discuss so many things with each other! I was particularly excited to see one topic that says “Mother’s work is never done” (we called it the work of parents – both mom and dad is never done), and then a page on saving money in a Bank!!
Busy, Busy World: This lovely book introduces children to different countries and famous landmarks/culture through short, funny stories. The illustrations help the children visually associate countries with certain landmarks (For example, Eiffel tower with France or water canals and gondolas with Venice). However, without a doubt, it is the funny stories that will be enjoyed the most. Whether it’s the boa constrictor who coils around an aeroplane and saves it from falling apart, or Ukulele the Cat who cooks fish in tomato ketchup – the stories will leave you in splits of laughter!
Please And Thank You Book: This is a must must have for reinforcing etiquette (it comes with stickers!), but it has so much more than just that. It has short stories on road safety, daily routine, hygiene, being responsible, polite and kindness. Kids will love the characters in it including the stubborn Pig Won’t and loveable Pig Will, the traffic policeman Sergeant Murphy and Lowly the Worm.
Chipmunk’s ABC: This book was bought when I realised that my child did not know his alphabets when he was almost 4 years old. Like all Richard Scarry books, this one has cute, loveable characters through the book and my son learnt his ABCs through this book.
Best Counting Book Ever – Asma has this book, highly recommends it. She has shared some inside pages in the kbc fb group here.
During recent fascination towards counting and not much interest in plain activity books, I was looking at vibrant counting book that had counting beyond 20 and came to rescue nine other than Richard Scarry with huge book (10” x 12”) with numerous things to count with each page filled with funny characters and action packed scenes ranging from trikes to go-carts to firemen rescuing cat family to flying melons to zooming jets and not to forget musicians with Boom -da-da-boom!!
So if your childoo is interested in counting and you need five minute’s peace, handover best counting book over( stealing Willy Bunny’s clever father’s strategy who sent off Willy Bunny to count from 1 to 100 making the day super fun)….
Busy, Busy, Airport is loved dearly by Payal Kalra Makhija’s son RJ that they even had a birthday party theme based on this book! She has shared a very interesting reading session in the facebook group here.
You can find all the other BUSY, BUSY, BOARD BOOKS by Richard Scarry here.
And all the other books authored by Richard Scarry can be found here on amazon.
Added by Asha: Thank you Amar, Kausar, Achira, Payal, Asma for sharing your awesome recommendations.
Shout-out to our 14yo Intern-In-Residence (Aarini – The Chief Childoo) for posting this.
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