Story Time: Mix & Match It!

Story Time with LENikki and I hope you’ll join us today for Story Time with Literary Escapism, a bi-weekly feature where we showcase various children books that fall directly in the fantasy & science fiction genres, as well as books we’re enjoying with our young children. We’re talking boardbooks, picture books, those books labeled as beginner or newly independent readers, and middle grade – anything of interest to those readers who are not quite ready for the young adult genre. So we hope you’ll join us on the carpet as we share the stories that have captured our little ones imaginations.

I love multi-purpose books. Those that can be read over and over again, and they never get old. When it comes to board books, or books targeted at Psy’s age (Pre-K or younger), they can be hard to find. There’s only so many ways you can read the same 5-10 pages over and over. If you have ever had to read to not-yet-reading toddlers, I’m sure you know what I mean.

So finding books that can keep Psy’s attention, as well as my own, and can be read over and over is a bit frustrating. And then I found the perfect one. Psy loves them since they have his favorite characters and Ian loves to mess up the story. I’m talking about those Mix & Match books. There may only be 6 pages to the book, but considering each page has 3 panels that can be flipped, the possibilities are endless. At least in the mind of a three and seven year old. Most of your Mix & Match books claim to have over 200 possibilities, but getting to all of those may never happen. At least I don’t believe we have. The boys love to mix it up, but there’s no way we’re going to do that many in one night. Which means every night we could read the say book, but the story will rarely be the same.

TMNT Mix MatchNow, I haven’t come across many of the Mix & Match books. Thankfully I came across a Marvel Heroes Mix & Match and DC Super Friends Mix & Match and the boys have been loving them. Go me, right. Tonight, thanks to the boys bringing home their Scholastic Book Order flyers, I picked up a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mix & Match, and I think the boys are going to go nuts over this one as well.

Mix and match favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja characters over 200 different ways by flipping the panels.

Get ready for mix-and-match fun—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle style! Kids can mix and match their favorite characters from the movie (Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and more) hundreds of different ways to make hilarious combinations. Readers just need to flip the three panels on each page to mix and match each character’s head, body, and legs.

After finding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mix & Match, I went hunting on Amazon to see if there were more out there and damn there are.

Marvel Heroes Mix MatchRise of the Guardians Mix MatchPhineas Ferb Mix Match
Princess Mix MatchTransformers Mix MatchSuperhero Squad

DC Super Friends Mix MatchThe one thing I’m really loving about these things – the fabulous science fiction aspect of them. I know it’s a stretch, but the boys basically get to play mad scientists with their stories – taking parts from one page, adding it to another, and pulling yet a third piece from someplace else. They’re making their own Frankenstein of a story! Like I said, it’s a stretch, but I’m going with it. After all, if it means I don’t have to read the same story over and over, and the boys still get a ton of enjoyment out of reading, then I’m all over it.

Normally, Psy won’t pick up a book just to look through on his own, but he’ll reach for his own Match & Mix and that sells it for me right there. If you’re looking for a book to engage your preschooler with, then I would definitely check out one of these fabulous Match & Mix books.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.