Child's Play

Review of Row, Row, Row Your Boat

“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream,” Come on, you know the words, “merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” But did you know there were more words?
“Rock, rock, rock your boat, gently down the stream. If you see a crocodile, don’t forget to scream!”
“Row, row, row your boat, gently to the shore. If you see a lion, don’t forget to roar!”
I have to admit that my knowledge for this song only extended to the first two lines and I was delighted to find that there was more of it. Still, even six lines of a song doesn’t seem much with which to fill a book, yet Annie Kubler’s illustrations turn this simple song into a great action book for babies and toddlers.
My four month old daughter sits in with the older children for story time but this is the first real baby book I’ve read to her (shame on me). She was chuckling with laughter at the bright colours as we rowed and rocked along and it is proof, if any were needed, that even the youngest of babies can get great stimulation and enjoyment out of the right books. So that’s another ten minutes to be added to our story time each day.
Oh, and for parents, the tune and the words are printed on the back of each book so you’ve no excuse for not singing along.

Cork Evening Echo. 1st February 2004

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