Don't Jump On Dad (Hop on Pop - Dr Seuss)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	Hop on Pop - Dr Seuss
Date:	15/12/05 (1824 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun tongue twisting rhymes

Disadvantages: having your 3 year old in stitches when you can't say them correctly

Thanks to Librelola's review which was then followed by one from Richada on Ciao I was spurned on to write one myself about the joys of Dr Seuss in a PC Rom learning game. At the same time I requested that Hop on Pop could be added as this is my favourite Dr Seuss book.

I gave quite a bit of background knowledge in my other Seuss review on the man himself so I won't go over it again and if you are interested in his beginnings then you can have a look at the ABC review. Instead I will just get straight on with the joys of this particular book.

As I mentioned this is my favourite Seuss book and this is for 3 reasons:-

Great illustrations
Fun Characters
Clever rhymes

I'll start with a bit about the illustrations which I believe are an essential part of getting pre-school children interested in books. As this is one of his very simple rhymers Seuss fills up the majority of the pages with illustrations as there are only a few pages where there are more than 10 words written. Although the drawings are done simply they are very amusing for children to look at as you are reading and they can easily understand the rhymes by these drawings.

One of my favourite sets of illustrations features a character called Pat who sits on lots of different items such as a hat, a cat and a bat. It ends with him being warned not to sit on that - that being a very spiky cactus plant. This always causes my 3 year old son to shout out a warning too - usually something like 'He'll jab his bum' which causes others much amusement if they haven't heard it before.

The illustrations have great detail when it comes to the expressions on the many creatures' faces such as the mischievous looks on the two who fight all night.

The characters in the Seuss books are brilliant and it seems that the monsters match their names perfectly although in this book they are more simplistic than in other books. 'Thing' is the one who loves to sing and takes on the appearance of an opera singer perfectly. Other characters we meet are Mr Brown, Mr Black and Red, who has a mop of red hair andshares a big bed with Ed, Ned and Ted.

The rhymes are fun to read out loud and have my son in giggles especially when we get them slightly wrong. They all have the same format and start with 2 words that rhyme such as 'MOUSE, HOUSE'. This is then followed with the simple phrase 'Mouse on house'. The picture shows a mouse on top of a house. On the other side of the page it continues with 'HOUSE, MOUSE, House on Mouse'. The picture to accompany this phrase has a mouse going up a hill carrying a house. The main words at the start are always in capitals to accentuate the rhyme and to help children see the similarity between the words.

As the book goes on more advanced sentences are brought into the equation but this is done gently to encourage the child who will soon be reciting words along with you. My son knows most of this 64 page book off by heart now and often I just have to say the first word and he rattles off the rest moving his finger along the words as he does so. I think this has been helped along by his Leappad where is used to moving the pen along the words as they are read out.

His favourite rhyme has to be the same as the title of the book and has, in the past, tried out this himself as he jumps up and down on his father in bed in the morning.

'HOP POP
We like to hop.
We like to hop
on top of Pop.

STOP
You must not
hop on Pop.

The look on Pop's face in the book is exactly like my bloke's when our son has his fun and the disappointed look on my son's face looks just like the children in the book as they are told off by their father.

The book ends with another favourite of my son's which he likes us to read as fast as possible and this is the bit we tend to get wrong which he finds so hilarious for some reason.

'SAY SAY
What does this say?

seehemewe
patpuppop
hethreetreebee
tophopstop

Ask me tomorrow
but not today.'

This book was written just over 40 years ago and I think it's great that such simply written books are still as popular today as they were when I was growing up, especially with all the television merchandising around now. It just goes to show that you don't need fancy gimmicks and expensive additional soft toys to hold a child's interest. I feel that getting a child's imagination working through reading is perhaps the most important piece of education around as this can lead to so much more in later life. My son, like many others, loves watching characters such as Tweenies and Bob the Builder and I think that's great as long as books aren't forgotten about. Libraries are a great way of getting them interested in reading and it's never too young to start getting books out. If you can't find this one at your library or would like to have it as a keeper then it's available at Amazon for £4.99.

Go on - give your child a treat he'll remember for years.

Summary: Great fun for parents and children