Too many Toys By: David Shannon

First of all if you have not ever looked at or read a David Shannon book, go to a book store or library ASAP! The illustrations are amazing, and if your child is not listening to the words then it is probably because they are to busy looking at the pictures! My Husband even spent about 10 minutes the other day just looking at the pictures in this book, then he decided that it may be even better if he actually read the story!

"Too many Toys" is a book about a little boy, Spencer, who has just that, Too Many Toys! The Books Starts off like this, "SPENCER HAD TOO MANY TOYS. They covered the floor of his bedroom and piled up in his closet. They were stashed under his bed. they spilled down the stairs and into the living room. He has big toys in the backyard.... and little toys in the bath tub." The story goes on to tell about all the different kinds of toys he had and about all the people who gave them to him.. Which is one of my favorite illustrations in the book. It shows the Dentist, a teacher, some friends at his birthday party, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.. and in each of their hands it shows their gift. seriously their is two whole pages with different people and their gifts for Spencer!

Then the story goes on to tell how the toys were becoming dangerous like when his dad would step on something or his mom would trip over something.. And Then "One day. Spencer's mom had had it up to here with all the toys. SPENCER! She yelled on her way upstairs. YOU HAVE TO MANY TOYS! That's impossible thought Spencer. Then she said, We're going to get rid of some of them." That's a CATASTROPHE! "Pick out which toys you don't want, she ordered, and put them in this box. BUT I LOVE THEM ALL! Spencer cried."

So now you can imagine the fight she went through to get Spencer to give up some toys but Spencer did give some of them up eventually and I think you will be pretty surprised (or maybe not, if your kids loves a box!) by Spencer's imagination and creativity at the end of the story and I am sure your kids will be as well!

What can you do while reading/looking at this book?

• Talk about all the facial expressions and what they mean, see if you and your child can imitate them! This can get pretty silly!
• You and your child could take turns playing "I Spy" with each page. And see what toy or object you can find in the picture. Example on the page with Spencer in the sandbox you could say "I Spy a camel" (the camel is on a bucket close to the bicycle) and your child would look for the camel. If your child is learning his/her colors you could just say "I spy something Blue" and your child could point to something blue!
• Oh, Marybeth, it's Aimee here!  I'm thinking a good room pick up would be in order and maybe a donation box for the kids to put toys in if they feel they are being over run.  
• Check out David Shannon's Website.

Oh and Look I found some images of pages from the book!