Disclosure: I’ll receive the book pictured; opinions shared are mine.
I’m excited to show you the first title from a new children’s publisher Building Block Press: Hoo Hoo Who? written and illustrated by Mary Maier with speech pathologist Lauren Horton (February 2019; ISBN: 978-1944201142; Hardcover $17.95; Ages 2-5; 32 pages). It’s all kinds of fun!
As an infant, my son had hearing issues due to chronic ear infections. He had ear tubes, but by then his speech was already impacted. After several years of struggling with the school system to provide speech services, he finally got into a speech class at the beginning of 2nd grade. He has worked very hard for 2 years, trying to master the basic sounds of the English language. I’m thrilled that Hoo Hoo Who makes speaking fun. Hopefully, it will help children like my son enjoy practicing proper speech sounds!
Roughly 1 in 12 children have a speech or language delay, including author Mary Maier’s 3-year-old son Max, who is also on the autistic spectrum. Here’s an excerpt from her blog explaining the importance (and shortage) of books focusing on WH- questions:
“Kids with language delays work on WH- questions A LOT. Many children know their colors, shapes, numbers, letters, but not the difference between who, what and where. These questions are the building blocks of conversations and are HUGELY important to language development. I started thinking, why didn’t I know about this? Why doesn’t every parent know about the importance of WH- questions? Why aren’t WH-question books as prevalent as shape and number books? So I started doing some research. I wanted to find something to help with my son’s language development. All I could find were books with the word AUTISM in bold print on the front cover. No parent wants to read their child an AUTISM bedtime story—so I decided to write and illustrate my own WH- series of books for all kids, beginning with WHO. And WHO better to go on this journey with than a speech pathologist? My hope is to spread the word to ALL parents (not just to those whose children have language delays), the importance of WH- questions in language development and that they can be focused on in a fun and natural way—just like all those color books.”
my cousin would love this!
I love how interactive this book is! My niece would love to read this!
This sounds like a great interactive book. Thanks for sharing and providing a chance to win a copy.
Owls are one of my daughter’s favorite animals to read about. She would love this book. It looks really cute.
I’ve heard really great reviews on this book. My granddaughters would love to read this!
What fantastic illustrations this book has.
This looks like a great book. I would love to give it to my niece.
This book looks like so much fun! My grandson would love this!
This looks like a charming book to add to our family collection.
My son teaches special education and this book will be great for his classroom.
I think this is a great picture book!
This book looks so cute
I like that kids can interact with the book.