Helen Oxenbury

Tom likes his father to read to him and his toy monkey, Pippo, but when his father gets tired Tom reads to Pippo himself.

Tom and Pippo Read a Story

Sarah Sammis

Tom and Pippo Read a Story by Helen Oxenbury is one of a series of board books featuring Tom and his toy monkey, Pippo. In this book, Tom loves having his daddy read to him. It's all about the balance of time between personal time and family time.

Tom's too young to read to himself so he needs his father (or perhaps his mother but she isn't in this book). Tom crawls into his dad's lap to be read to. At first Dad puts away his newspaper to read to Tom. Later he tells Tom that he needs time to himself so Tom "reads" to Pippo by imitating his dad. The rest of this short book follows with the initial imitation to the point that little Tom is asleep in bed and Pippo is propped up to read the paper by himself.

In a family of book lovers young and old, we loved this book. It captures what a typical day of reading is like here. Ian and I love to read to the kids but we also want and need time to read to ourselves. Now that Sean is older he can read to himself and he sometimes reads to Harriet. Sometimes though he doesn't want to or can't read to Harriet so she's left to "read" to herself. And sometimes I find her animals reading to themselves.

The entire list:

 * Tom and Pippo and the Washing Machine
 * Tom and Pippo Go for a Walk
 * Tom and Pippo Make a Mess
 * Tom and Pippo Read a Story
 * Tom and Pippo's Day
 * Tom and Pippo See the Moon
 * Tom and Pippo in the Garden
 * Pippo Gets Lost
 * Tom and Pippo and the Dog
 * Tom and Pippo in the Snow
 * Tom and Pippo Make a Friend
 * Tom and Pippo on the Beach

Tom and Pippo Read a Story

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