Six Little Sticks

A masterful story for the preschool set, Six Little Sticks by Tiffany Stone and Ruth Hengeveld is a wonderful story that combines rhyme, counting and nonfiction!

Mama stick bug is out for a stroll. As she’s walking around her little stick children start to go missing, one at a time. Mama is worried for a minute but then she is so happy because her children have learned to hide, just as stick bugs should.

Tiffany Stone has nailed it with this sweet little story. The rhyming text flows from page to page creating a lyrical story perfect for early years learners. The subject matter is something so many young readers are fascinated by: bugs/insects! We have all encountered little learners fascinated by the natural world and all of the little critters they can explore and how many of us have had a “bug hotel” hanging around our homes and classrooms.

I love that this story combines so many different learning subjects. With this being a picture book, the literacy connection is obvious however she also incorporated problem solving, numeracy and science too. Starting with numeracy, little readers are able to count up and down with Mama stick when she starts losing her little sticks. The science comes in most obviously at the end of the story, in the end papers, where readers get to read some facts about stick bugs and other insects found in the illustrations. Finally, readers are treated to some problem solving as they try and figure out where all of the little sticks have gone.

The illustrations by Ruth Hengeveld pair beautifully with this story. Readers will be delighted to seek and find all of the missing little sticks as they read through the story. The illustrations are simple using ecoline, pencil and digital editing to bring the readers into the trees and the grass with Mama and her six little sticks.