Author Profile: Don and Audrey Wood

Husband-and-wife team Don and Audrey Wood have created many picture books together, individually and with their son, Bruce. Their lush illustrations, rollicking rhymes and rhythmic pacing and repetition make many of their works perfect for reading aloud.

Their website has lots of interesting information and useful resources. You’ll find biographies of them, activities and videos for their books, as well as a “secrets” tab that provides intriguing backstory for some of their books.

Here are some of our favorites for young children

The Napping House
Probably the Woods' most famous book, this cumulative tale pairs repetition with detailed illustrations to describe a quiet house “where everyone is sleeping.” That is, of course, until they are not. Little kids will want to chime in and list the nappers, as well as search the illustrations for the tiny flea hiding in nearly every picture.

Piggies and Silly Sally

Wacky illustrations, repetition (Piggies) and rhyme (Silly Sally) invite kids to participate by wiggling their fingers, acting out the story, finishing predictable lines and words or predicting what will come next.

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub

Little kids will love this silly spin on bath time. When the king stays in the bathtub all day, the court doesn’t know what to do. A perfect book for making connections to a small child’s daily experiences (bath time, learning about time) talking about the time of day (morning, noon, afternoon, evening, night), King Bidgood also provides an excellent example of a kid solving a problem when adults fail.

Books that work with young and older kids

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear

Simple text and big pictures make this a quick and fun read-aloud for the pre-K set. Older kids can explore the emotions of the mouse, the motives of the narrator and the existence of a bear.


Quick as a Cricket

Little ones will love acting out the phrases in this book. With older kids, explore the many facets of one’s personality or introduce the concept of similes.

Blue Sky

This nearly wordless book encourages readers to notice the changing moods and drama of our sky. Younger listener will like the progression from day to night. Older ones might like to imagine and draw their own skies.

For the more sophisticated listener

Heckedy Peg

An original fairy tale based on a 16th century game involves seven kids, a mom, a witch and a riddle. Audrey was the model for the mom and Don was the model for the witch. 


Weird Parents

Kids, especially preteens, will relate to this story about a boy who wishes his parents weren’t so weird. It would be a great addition to a Read-Aloud about feelings, families or not fitting in.

This list only scratches the surface of the books the Woods have created. Check out your local library for more titles and experience the talent and versatility of this creative pair.

To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Great Expectations

Reducing stress is a New Year’s resolution we can all get behind. Reducing stress and anxiety that kids may feel at a TRC Read-Aloud will make the experience more fun and engaging for everyone involved.


One way to cut down on stress is to focus on consistency. Knowing what to expect from day to day can reduce stress and anxiety. Take your morning routine for example. On days when you wake up refreshed, have your coffee, know where your keys are, hit green lights all the way and find a perfect parking space, you feel great. On days when you sleep through your alarm, discover you're out of coffee, can’t find your keys and learn the metro is delayed, you are thrown off for most of the morning and are likely in an unhappy mood.

Now put yourself in a TRC kid’s shoes. Their lives are very unpredictable and stressful. Kids have even less control over their days than adults do, and TRC kids encounter more stressful situations than the average kid. Who knows what their days are like before they get to you at the Read-Aloud?

So what can you do to mitigate their stress? You can provide stability and consistency. You can set up positive expectations and help kids fulfill them. Try these six easy steps:

Be Prepared!
Make a plan with your fellow volunteers. Come prepared to read, talk, do activities and have fun. Planning your Read-Aloud in advance not only makes for a better reading experience, it shows respect and understanding for the kids we serve. When you don’t prepare in advance, you let the kids down.

Use the Promises.
Show the promises and talk through them at the beginning of every Read-Aloud. If necessary, remind kids about them and enforce them during the Read-Aloud. That can mean helping a kid one on one, providing opportunities to turn a situation around, or sending a kid home from a Read-Aloud with the expressed hope that they’ll come back next week and be able to participate in a positive way.



Keep to the TRC Read-Aloud format.
If every team does basically the same thing in the same order every time, the kids will be more calm and better able to participate self-sufficiently. Greet kids, do name tags, review promises, read as a big group, read in small groups, do the activity, choose books, go home.

If you are going to change the format, tell the kids at the beginning of the Read-Aloud. Explain to them how the evening will go. For example, if you are doing a craft using glue or paint that needs time to dry between steps and want to do the activity first, tell the kids. “Today we’re reading all about sail boats. We’re going to make a sail boat first so it will have time to dry while we read. Tonight will go like this: Promises, glue boats, read in big group, read in little groups, paint boats and then choose books.”


Feed the kids. 
Research has demonstrated that hunger affects a kid’s ability to learn:

“When students experience poor nutrition…it is harder for them to listen, concentrate and learn…Poor diets also affect behavior. Students can often appear listless (with low energy) or hyperactive (on a sugar high).”
 How Poverty Affects Classroom Engagement by Eric Jensen in Educational Leadership, May 2013

If the kids at your Read-Aloud haven’t been fed dinner or given a snack by an after-school program right before the Read-Aloud, give them a healthy snack at the beginning of the Read-Aloud, if allowed by the site. We’ve had success doing this during the large group reading at the beginning of a session. A snack settles the kids down and provides some calories to quiet rumbling tummies and fuel learning.


Model positive behavior.
You need to walk the talk. You need to be the change you want to see in the kids. That means being patient, calm, respectful, accommodating, understanding, consistent and humorous. The Promises apply to you too.


Have positive expectations and make them known. 
Kids are smart and perceptive. How you see them and expect them to behave (as smart, creative, enthusiastic readers or not) will filter through to them. 

Help the kids buy into expectations by involving them in creating site-specific behavioral expectations. You can do this at your Read-Aloud by extending a discussion of the TRC Promises. At Sullivan House recently, this discussion happened naturally and the kids came up with their own expectations that more fully described what the Promises mean to them.

Here's an outline for a Read-Aloud about expectations, behavior and consequences. Try it out with the kids at your site!

Knowing what to expect from an experience and what others expect from them creates an environment where kids can participate fully and exercise their independence in a constructive way. By reducing stress for the kids, you are setting them up to succeed. And that's a great expectation.


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.