Hellobee

by: Mrs. Chocolate

When I started to potty train Drake, I found a book called Duck Goes Potty by Michael Dahl published under the Hello Genius series. Drake took to it very quickly, and eventually even memorized it. While I wish I could say this book magically potty trained him (sadly it did not), Drake enjoyed the story so much when he saw other animal covers on the back of the book, he asked for them and I bought a few more. Drake really took to the series and I liked them because many of them taught good manners, habits, routines, and milestones like brushing your teeth, eating a good lunch, listening, etc. When Drake misbehaves, I sometimes remind him about the relevant animal in one of the stories, and it does seem to resonate and help. Drake will sometimes tell me he is listening like an elephant or needs to calm down like a monkey.

Michael Dahl is an accomplished children’s book writer with 24 books in the Hello Genius series, and over 200 books total to his name. Many of his other books are geared toward older children and pre-teens, as he tends to like writing about monsters and super heroes.

These books have a very linear and repetitive quality to them, as we see the animals repeating the same actions. This helps kids learn this behavior as they see it modeled again and again in the stories. The colors and illustrations are also bright and the animals are all very kid-like, which I think is relatable to kids. These were also some of the first books Drake learned to read from cover to cover. Some of it probably was memorization, but I do think he picked up sight words simply because he enjoyed the stories so much.

The Hello Genius series has been expanding over time, with some recent installments added just this past February. We are actually going to be switching Drake into a twin bed soon and I saw a new book called Big Bed for Giraffe. I think we’ll pick up this title before we transition him, just like we did when we started to potty train.

I really enjoy these books and they hit such a broad range of childhood behaviors, there is probably a book out there for you.