Joey and I recently enjoyed a few weeks of reading This Book is Magic by Ashley Evanson. Much like the books Push Here by Herve Tullet, This Book is Magic encourages the reader to fully interact with the book – tapping the page, waving or twirling fingers in the air, and saying magic words in order to make magic be revealed when you turn the page.
“Wiggle your fingers and say bravo!”
“Wave your magic finger and say Bippity Boppity Big”
Throughout the book the reader is able to turn a frog into a prince, make books large, cause a boat to disappear, and interact with a lion.
Shortly after Christmas I was meeting with Joey and noticed the newly opened card game – Sleeping Queens- sitting on his family’s couch. It happened to be a game I love, and one that I not only play with my own children, but also with many of the children I work with. I’ve never worked with a child who didn’t like this game. Joey’s older brother was also home from school, and I jumped on the chance to turn this into a meaningful learning and bonding moment.
When I arrived at Joey’s house a few Fridays ago, I was thrilled to find his seven year old cousin there with him. She could only stay for about ten minutes of our session, but it was one of the best, most targeted ten minutes I’ve seen from Joey. 
The other day when I arrived at Joey’s house he seemed taller and older to me. As I sat down to work he grinned and focused his eyes on his wall calendar, where there was a picture of balloons over yesterday’s date. Oh! It had been his birthday. Perhaps he looked taller and older because he was fully feeling the weight of being five. A big kid with big ideas, plans, and thoughts.
When I arrived at Joey’s house on Friday afternoon he was in a great mood. He was giggling and excited to read, and his personality shone throughout our whole session. We were reading The Gruffalo, which is about a mouse and an imaginary yet real scary monster. As we read about the scary Gruffalo with his terrible teeth in his terrible jaws, I tried to use it as an opportunity to model using body part words like teeth, tongue, knee, leg, back, etc. 
