These books are examples of cumulative stories.
"Predictable books are those which, by virtue of the book's pattern, children can successfully anticipate the next word or next sentence. Their predictability encourages participation and engages children's minds. Often, these books make heavy use of rhyme or repetition." - Ready for Reading (Juvenile Parent/Teacher Resource Room - J 372.58 Bi)
Bumblebee buzzes around bothering everyone until he comes to a gentle butterfly who understands that the busy bee is looking for someone to be his friend.
The big brown bear has no fear of a bad-tempered goose, a big pig, or even a wolf, but something very small causes him to run scared.
Benny sets off in the morning with five shiny new pennies to spend and eventually buys something for his mother, brother, sister, dog, and cat.
Hattie, a big black hen, discovers a fox in the bushes, which creates varying reactions in the other barnyard animals.
Poetically cumulative text and illustrations capture the relationships between plants and animals in the ecology of the Great Barrier Reef.
A cumulative rhyme describes the uproarious chain of events that ensue when a waiter trips over a book dropped by a boy watching a bee.
A rooster, a pig, a cow, and many other farm animals enjoy a perfect day in the country. Uses rebuses.
The birthday child's animal friends bring ingredients and help make a birthday cake.
Unable to stand his noisy and overcrowded home any longer, a farmer goes to the Wise Man for advice.
Cumulative text and illustrations depict what happens in Jack's garden after he plants his seeds.
In this cumulative tale, a fly, a mouse, a frog, a duck, a hare, a fox, a pig, and a wolf come to live together, until a bear comes along.
When it is time for bed, a little pink pig lags behind as his mother asks the horse, cow, sheep, and hens to help her find her child.
On a windy day, Mike's kite blows away, pulling him and all the many people who try to help him.
Mr. Gumpy accepts more and more riders on his boat until the inevitable occurs.
A girl and her dog set out in their canoe one morning, only to be insistently joined by a series of animals, large and small.
Aided by others who have suffered at the hands of the king, a blackbird seeks revenge on the monarch who has stolen his wife.
After Pig, Sheep, Goat, Rabbit, Hen, and Mouse become enamored of their reflections in the pond, the silliest animal of all turns out to be the frog who tricks them into jumping into the water.
In cumulative verses and rebuses a young boy and his mother have different views on how to pack a bag for a trip to Grandma's.
The mouse added just the necessary weight to the line formed by all those trying to pull up the giant turnip.
An overheated pig who doesn't swim, throws himself into a pond, throwing the farmyard into an uproar.
A variety of flowers grows near the hollyhocks that give shade to the bee that sleeps on the only rose in a garden.
"Chicken Licken" is retold with illustrations of school children performing the story as a play on stage.
Each day of the week brings a new food, until on Sunday all the world's children can come and eat it up.
Two groups of animals tell each other about the food and other things that they put in their pockets.
