Comments on Saffron Tree: Tanka Tanka Skunk

Sheela, I almost forgot about this book. reminded ...

2010-08-08T01:41:32.252-07:00

Sheela, I almost forgot about this book. reminded me of the fun we had. need to find it now for shraddha.

And thanks for going back in time(I mean the old posts) and leaving your comments. It definitely brings a big smile on me and ranjani.

It is exercising the magic again, Satish, this tim...

2010-08-07T08:47:06.576-07:00

It is exercising the magic again, Satish, this time with Oggie,and I *had* to leave a note to thank you. Again!

And as utbtkids noted, this was my inspiration too to start the clapping exercise at home with Ana for counting the syllables in the words... especially when we play guessing game and am nowhere near guessing, Ana gives hints that are typically the starting letter sound, the ending sound and the number of syllables, all thanks to what this book sparked...

And, on a totally unrelated note, I learnt that Tanka is a five-line cousin of Haiku and has been a popular form of poetry in Japan for over 1300 years.

utbt, that was really interesting to read. thanks ...

2009-11-23T18:20:13.749-08:00

utbt, that was really interesting to read. thanks for the comments. It is surprising how books help us in different ways(without our explicit knowledge).

I had been meaning to leave this comment for a lon...

2009-11-23T14:38:07.385-08:00

I had been meaning to leave this comment for a long time now. We read this book last sept cos it was reviewed at ST. My kids love it.

My almost five year old now write phonetically and reads pretty well. Thinking back this book was a mile stone in her reading/ writing. See how Tanka and Skunka beat their drums for caterpillar, alligator and such? They say cat-er-pill-ar, alli-ga-tor. Unknowingly we started with names at our house, we did for example, Max-ine, rob-ert and we identified the number of beats. This became a life saver in numerous long car trips. I was under the impression that it was purely entertainment, suddenly during Christmas last year, while we were making holiday cards for my kids' teachers, my older one said DEAR, then she said D-AR split 'dear' in to two syllabels with two claps, then she further dissected the DE sound and the AR sound and wrote DI-YAR. Totally wrong spelling, but she got the concept that speech is made of words, words are made of syllabels, syllabels are made of sounds and each sound can be represented by a letter, letters are symbols for sounds, a thought can be communicated in writing/speech....
I was amazed to see that whole process evolve. When ever I see my older one I think of this book.

Hi Sathish,

Kids love such books, a good br...

2007-09-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Sathish,

Kids love such books, a good break from didactic ones, gives the adult reader a break too:) I particularly liked the idea of having the (often neglected) skunk around as a character in a book.

And what a simple and fun review. Loved it. Will l...

2007-09-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

And what a simple and fun review. Loved it. Will love this book with my son I am sure!

Nice pick, Satish! sounds like this book that Ana ...

2007-09-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Nice pick, Satish! sounds like this book that Ana loves: Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins & Eric Gurney - every other page has this nice beat:
Dum Ditty Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum!
and has no story either - a bunch of monkeys drumming... simple short sentences all rhyming to the beat. Rhyme and repetition have always been a hit with the little ones, don't you think? [sometimes even with me!]