I saw the long, skinny body and short legs of a dachshund walking off the cover of the spectacularly sweet story of a boy named Peter, and his dog Willie - and I fell in love! The book is both written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats. To say I judged a book by its cover would be an understatement. So, through the use of music and movement could I help children start practicing and mastering these difficult gross & fine motor skills.Įzra Jack Keats. Those movements were not the easiest for me either, growing up but they were best mastered when the teacher played a song with those movements in them, in which I had to copy or imitate what was played in the song.

Like snapping fingers, whistling, hopping, and skipping, for starters. Using a book like 'Whistle for Willie', will help in exercising gross and fine motor skills that young children ages 3 to 5 years may need help defining.

You come to identify with Willie and his efforts in doing something he only thought he had to wait a long time for it to happen. Until finally, after practicing and practicing, he blows his first whistling sound. Willie continues to do more tricks and tries again to whistle and nothing happened. He tried to whistle while wearing his dad's hat,and that didn't happen. Just like what I had done when I was Willie's age, Willie goes on to think that if he pretended to look and act like his father, then whistling would come naturally. It's such a simply story and the author, Ezra Jack Keats, really depicts the mind and behavior of a 4 or 5 year old child in this story. This book is comical, and everyone would enjoy the story of a young boy, named Willie, who tries and tries again to whistle.

Whistle for willie board book