Title: Each Peach Pear Plum
Authors: Janet and Allen Ahlberg
File Under: Read-Aloud, Picture Book
Age Group: Nursery-Rhyme set and indeed all ages
To me, the test of a good book for any age is whether you can read it out loud the required one million times without throwing it across the room. The test of a bad one is that reading it aloud even once makes your head hurt. There are those books that make you really cringe when your child brings them to you. And then there are the ones you just enjoy.
There are several criteria: 1. The actual words need to trip pleasingly off the tongue. It shouldn't be a chore to get them out of your mouth, and it's really a gift in an author to achieve “speakability.” C. S. Lewis came to appreciate what he called the poetic genius of Beatrix Potter when children came to stay at his house during the war. Little books that seemed nothing more than nice pictures and a cute story proved themselves to be masterworks of the well placed word.
Reading them aloud — more than once — is the proving ground. As we've discussed before in the crucial matter of nursery rhymes, rhyming, rhythm, and tongue-trippingness are essential qualities especially of literature for very young children.
As much as I love E. Nesbit, her version of Jack and the Beanstalk fails in this regard. It's a pain to read out loud, not least because her giant doesn't bother to say Fi Fie Fo Fum, and what is the point.
2. The illustrations must be well done. The child is drawn in by the pictures. The reader is going to spend a lot of time looking at the pictures. Much of what happens when you sit down to “read” a book with a toddler is discussion of the pictures.
So the pictures must be good.
3. The story must be delightful, which means that it simply must contain something for the adult to contemplate. A dreary moral is worse than useless, but extreme boredom of the reader is part of the bungle.
Best of all is at least a wink and a nod to the adult reader, along with total captivation for the child — which is what makes the classics classic — Winnie-the-Pooh, The Golden Age, Swallows and Amazons. The author gets bonus points for subtle or overt references to other books in the text.
4. Ideally, you should be able to discover new things in it, even on multiple readings, because where toddlers are concerned, yes, you will be reading that book again. Here is where text and illustration can create something together that is more than the sum of their parts.
In all these areas, Each Peach Pear Plum is a winner. We love this book. Love it.
The illustrations are beyond adorable, hitting that sweet spot between instantly captivating and rewarding of intense scrutiny. The rhymes are timeless — your whole family can memorize the entire book and recite it on car rides. I think I can still manage it, and not only has it been years but I'm notoriously bad at remembering poetry. It has a forward motion and rhythm that are truly inspired. It's funny and cute and simple and just complicated enough. It will keep the one-year-old interested, even if he has yet to master Mother Goose, and the ten-year-old will appreciate the allusive qualities, discovering the pleasure of seeing the various characters come together in a new way.
It comes in a board book version — do get either that one or the hardcover version, because this book is a keeper.
Adele says
I adore Each Peach Pear Plum. Its one of my favorites and the extra cute details in the illustrations are lovely (very like one of my favorite painters Will Moses). Now if only I could convince my husband that the british propensity to feel the Cinderella should rhyme with cellar were not a fatal flaw.
Annalisa says
We’re transplants to the Boston area and find that the local accent provides a rhyme in the other direction. This is funniest when we hear our own children reading the book. I wouldn’t have believed before I heard it that Cinderellar rhymed with cellar!
Helen says
Could someone explain please , how these two words can NOT rhyme? (I am English!)
Helen
Leila says
Haha — most Americans would say Cinderellah and celleR, not really rhyming them. Most Brits might say Cinderella(r) and cellah(r) — thus rhyming them with a faint r at the end of each. Most Bostonians would say Cinderaller and cellAH, thus not rhyming them “in the other direction,” as Annalisa says.
But for the sake of poetry, you just have to work it.
Much worse in the audio version of Madeline I once got out of the library. So disgusted to find that the reader called her Madeleine with the French pronunciation, which maybe makes sense given that the story is set in France, but makes hash of the rhymes!
Helen says
Thank you! Yes, for us it is the same unaccented vowel sound at the end, (called a ‘schwa’ technically). My equivalent issues are with American books where the rhyme demands the last letter of the alphabet to have the name ‘zee’, when we say ‘zed’ !
Jen says
Had no idea you said zed for the letter z! Sounds like German. 😉
Lindsey G says
Canadians say “zed” too! (When they haven’t been too Americanized, that is)
Annalisa says
Ok, ok, so you do have to make it rhyme. But CinderellAR! To continue in my digression, my favorite local combo is the Sleepah sofar.
Joy says
Yes! One of our very favorites. We “discovered” these authors when someone gave us their very clever Jolly Pocket Postman book. The kids loved that one with all of the little hidden letters and clues.
I still have the board book of Each Peach, Pear, Plum, which I’m saving for my grandchildren. 🙂
Virginia says
I remember “The Jolly Postman” was in such demand in our elementary school library that there was a rule that you were only allowed to check it out once so others could have a chance. My sweet mother eventually bought me a copy : )
Lisa G. says
I also love this.
Lindsey G says
Yes, we love Each Peach Pear Plum, for all those reasons! I think I love Peepo by the same authors even more – it is just as much for adults as the little ones, I find. (Though it might be published under a different title in the US?)
Lindsey G says
I think “Peepo” here in Canada and the UK is published as “Peekaboo” in the US.
Saiorse says
Also even more important – it is visually interesting even for older kids looking on – because it doesn’t matter if it is being read aloud for the 2 year old often the 8 year old looks on too!
Sully says
Excellent criteria – I think our copy of Corduroy is going to “go missing” sometime soon because I CANNOT read it seventeen times a day for the rest of my life. Thanks for the recommendation!
Dianne says
Their book Peekaboo is my very favorite although I love Each Peach Pear Plum as well. These two have gone into storage for future grandchildren. We own the board book versions and they have been well loved.
Heather says
I haven’t read this one, but it sounds delightful!
Jennie Cooper says
This is one of our very favorites, along with Peek-A-Boo by the same people.
MaryBeth says
Aunty Leila gave me Each Peach when I had my first….In eight years and four children we have been through three copies (at a certain point tape doesn’t cut it) it is so well loved!
Dixie says
Leila and especially Deirdre, have you heard about the new children’s book “P. Zonka Lays An Egg” by Julie Paschkis? It’s about a hen who lays a pysanka. You’d love it. We just came across it at the library.
Emily says
Love this one! A family for whom I babysat in high school sent us our copy when my oldest was born. I think they had so many great memories of me reading aloud to their kids that they knew I’d continue reading aloud all the time with my own. None of our babysitters have gotten married yet, but I definitely plan to continue that tradition when they marry and have babies.
Ada says
The other book that we can read a thousand times in the fashion of “Peach, Plum” as my toddler calls it is “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.” We have never stopped mining that book for reciting, playing and art ideas.