What Happens Next? is an excellent picture book that employs a lift-the-flap format to introduce preschoolers to some simple critical thinking skills. Using animals, the author creates a situation and then asks the key question. Flip the half-page, and you’ll find the answer.
For example,
“Here’s a honeybee who’s found a beautiful patch of flowers. Here’s a hive full of her relatives who don’t know where it is. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?”
When you turn the page, you discover that the little honeybee returns to the hive and does a “wiggly dance” to tell the other bees where the flowers are. Then all the bees take off to find the flowers and collect the sweet nectar to make into honey.
Once you’ve read the book a few times, your child should be able to tell you—before you flip the page—what will happen next. At this point try creating your own “What happens next?” situations. Try using a notebook and follow the book’s format.
Bob Walch/2012 for curled
up with a good kid's book
What Happens Next? (Flip the Flap and Find Out)
