The Value of Children's books in Rhyme (by children's author Carol Zelaya)

Which books are the ones we remember from our childhood, pages we really remember word for word as young children? I would bet that they were the nursery rhymes that we can still recite as parents and grandparents even today. What made them so memorable was the simple fact that they were written in rhyme. Isn't that why our children can rattle off so many verses from the Dr. Seus books today? When I wrote my three children's books about Emily the Chickadee, they were written in rhyme as a natural progression from my love of writing poetry and it was as simple as that. What I didn't realize at the time I wrote them was that they would actually help young children learn to read. Of course, now I understand and have experienced it myself many times. Often while doing a reading, a child will stay on to listen more than once and eventually anticipate the rhyming word at the end of a line and say it along with me. I would assume that if given the opportunity to have it read over and over again to them by their parents at bedtime, it would be no time at all before the children were able to read each page themselves...and just how awesome is that? Isn't that the reason we buy books for our children, to encourage them to read? Well parents and teachers alike seem to agree that books in rhyme will actually help young children learn to read, and personally speaking, I couldn't be more excited about that!