Book Review: Play with Me! By: Michelle Lee

This book is large, colorful and well illustrated without being too busy. 

The pages have great illustrations of the pig and bear without a lot of extraneous detail in the background that can be distracting to a 3-year-old.

The book is about a vivacious pig, Pip, that has tons of ideas on how he and his bear friend, Nico, can play together. His ideas range from ball, dolls, house, hopscotch, superheroes to detectives.

However, Nico is trying to play his cello. This upsets Pip and he does not take the news that Nico is otherwise occupied very well.

We used this book to have discussions with my 3-year-old about respecting the autonomy of others to participate in activities when invited and also how to nicely decline invitations from others.

There was also some nice problem solving on the part of Nico that allowed them to play together while allowing him to play his cello.

We would recommend this book for children ages 3-6 years old and can be used to discuss behavior when playing with others as well as how to handle frustrations.

Mary is a Lexington mother with a 3-year-old son.