As you re read the story encourage your child to join in with Timothy’s cry ‘There’s a shark in the park!’ Children will enjoy completing the rhymes in the story as well. Talk about the book Play an I spy game eg ‘Timothy Pope, Timothy Pope what can you see through your telescope? I can see something beginning with ……’(use the sound the word begins with eg ‘sh’ for shoe) Play ‘a follow my instructions’ game eg ‘Timothy Pope looks left’; ‘Timothy Pope looks at the sky’ your child could followthe instructionwith their toy telescope. With older children you could play this as a Simon Says game; only following instructions if they begin with ‘Timothy Pope’ Play arhyming pairs game

At 20.5 inches by 14.5 inches, this book would be difficult for the youngest of readers to manipulate well enough to read it by themselves. However, it would be an excellent choice for a large reading circle where one person is reading it to a large group of children. The text is large enough so that it could easily be read by children several feet away. Age 3-5 Timothy Pope has a brand new toy telescope and he is testing it out at the park. He thinks he can spot a shark through it. The reader sees what Timothy sees through cut out spy holes and can decide if they think he is right when he cries ‘There’s a shark in the park! Shark in the Park is a boldly illustrated rhyming story which is fun to join in with and talk about. As you read the story aloud pause at each of the cut outs and guess together what Timothy may have spotted before you read on. Join in Give your child a cardboard tube, for example from a roll of kitchen paper, to use as a telescope; what can they spot at home or in the park?Myri likes the rhyming and he remembers the book from school. He loves playing with his blow up shark and drawing sharks. We printed off the rhyming game but Myri found it quite hard because he was trying to sound out all the words rather than listening to the rhymes.We'll have another go with the game but we've got some poetry books so we'll try reading more of those.'