Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins

Today I'm reviewing a book we own called Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, by Al Perkins and illustrated by Eric Gurney.  It is a 22-page board book first published in 1969, and it's one of these books like those by P. D. Eastman that are somehow affiliated with Dr. Seuss.  We've had the book since before my son was born, so I've been getting to know it for close to three years.  It's showing signs of its age; the edges are frayed, the spine is half gone, and the book kind of wobbles as you read it.   There's a reason we read this book so much, and it's one of the many things we learned at a place called Isis Parenting.

We took several classes at the now defunct Isis Parenting (you can read all about its closing in Fortune Magazine) and in one class they recommended we each choose one book to read every night as part of the bedtime routine.  The more consistent the bedtime routine the better, and this was the book I chose to read every night as part of the routine.  There were some days when I read it to my son three times a day: before morning nap, before afternoon nap, and before going to bed for the night.

The book is relatively simple and tells a story of musical monkeys assembling to play (mostly) the drums.  Some monkeys turn up who play banjos and fiddles, but in the end it's millions of monkeys with millions of drums as far as the eye can see.  There is a rhythm to the prose, and when I found it sometimes the hardest part was turning the pages fast enough to keep the beat.  Soon I had the book memorized and it was an easy go-to book.  This is a good trick if you are away from home on business and need to read books to your child over the phone.  You can buy two copies of a book and bring one with you while your child reads the other at home, but if you forget your copy or something happens to it you can instead recite a book like this.

I think it's interesting to note that a lot of these old stories that have been turned into board books have also been shortened from the original book.  In searching for it on google I saw some images of pages that aren't in the board book, and I would be interested to get a copy of the full book and see if the rhythm is the same.

I also found several different readings and/or animations on youtube, and liked this one the best.  This is the board book version, so some of the pages from the original are not there.  It's interesting to hear someone else read the book and compare it to my own inflection when I read it.  The rhythm in the video is the same but this guy has actual drum accompaniment.

The bottom line: this book is like a member of our family.