Children love to play with blocks—they begin by stacking and balancing, then they move on to building and engaging in pretend play. As an early literary skill, play is an important element in the development of every child.

Our next Picture Book Highlight—a series of posts in which we highlight a brand-new book that has been ordered for all agencies—is Blocks by Irene Dickinson.

A girl and a boy are playing with blocks: red blocks for Ruby, blue blocks for Benji. As play progresses, Benji leans over and takes a red block from Ruby. “Mine!” they each say, as they fall tumbling back, and all the blocks get mixed. Now Ruby and Benji begin play again, this time sharing all the blocks and building together. On the last page, Guy appears with his green blocks. What will they do next? asks the text.

The endpapers—decorated pages of paper at the beginning and end of a book, usually glued to the cover—offer a clue. That’s actually where the story starts: The cover has square die cuts that show the blue and red blocks all by themselves. By the end of the book, the endpapers tell a different story: red, blue, and green blocks all together in all manners of buildings.

This is a fun book to share with a preschooler to talk about play and sharing. Visit your neighborhood library to find this book and more!