King Bidgood

KING BIDGOOD’S IN THE BATHTUB by Audrey Wood is a great picture book to share with children. A knight, the queen, a duke, and the court try hard, but the king is having too much fun to get out of his bathtub and rule his kingdom.

Before reading the story you could talk about life in medieval times, especially about no running water except for maybe a page running up and down the castle steps. Encourage your child to listen for patterns in the story. What repeats? How is the story organized?

A question to ask your child is, did you notice a pattern that would help you retell the story? This story has three ways to remember the order:

Time of day: sun came up (morning), sun got hot (noon), sun sank low (evening), night got dark (night), moon shone bright (middle of night)

Character: Page, Knight, Queen, Duke, Court, Page

Activity: battle, lunch, fishing, Masquerade Ball, pull plug

One activity to do with a young child is have them show with their hands, the position of the sun in the sky as they read the story with you again. This is a good time to talk about the sun coming up in the east and setting in the west.