S2E1 Little Library: Laugh In The Bath

In this episode of Learn Play Thrive’s Little Library, host Linda Harrison dives into the bubbly world of Laugh in the Bath (2026 CBCA Notable picture book), together with author Rory H. Mather. From the power of rhythm and rhyme to the importance of active adult participation in play, this episode highlights how simple daily routines build a child’s sense of agency, identity, and wellbeing.

For educators and parents, the conversation offers practical pedagogical tools like the PEER sequence for interactive reading and evidence-based strategies for boosting phonological awareness. We also share creative, story-inspired play provocations designed to bridge the gap between the book’s narrative and a child’s real-world experiences. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome to Learn Play Thrive the podcast, the ultimate early learning podcast for educators and leaders in the sector. Let's learn, play, and thrive together.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

The Learn Play Thrive podcast was recorded on the land with the dark and junk people. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians, past, present, and emerging. Hands up, hands down, clear and dark and young.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

A warm welcome to you for today's episode of Learn Play Thrives Little Library. It's Linda Harrison here, early education content producer at Learn Play Thrive. We are passionate about the power of picture books to ignite young imaginations and foster a lifelong love of literacy and learning in the early years. Today we are diving into a bubbly, hilarious new picture book from the 2026 Children's Book Council of Australia notable list in the early childhood category. It's called Laugh in the Bath. The story is a rollicking, rhyming celebration as young readers follow a playful family of giraffes as they splash and laugh through their bedtime routine with jokes and songs and bathtime bubbles. And it's authored by the wonderfully talented Rory H. Mather. It's illustrated by Brent Wilson and it's published by Little Book Press. And I'm absolutely delighted to have Rory here in the studio with us today. Hello Rory and welcome to our little library.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Hi Linda, it's such a pleasure to be here. I'm always happy to talk about picture books and rhyme and the absolute chaos that's you know, bath time with Lil One.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Fantastic. So before we dive into this picture book, I'd love to share a little bit about Rory. So he is an acclaimed picture book author and notably a potato enthusiast. He writes his whimsical stories from his family home in Toowoomba and he draws on a life of storytelling inspired by a childhood at sea and years of library work. Some of Rory's previous publications include Vlad's Bad Breath, Rory the Lion, and Sloth's Love Parties. But what I love most about Rory's journey is that he writes to encourage children who, like he once did, find reading a bit tricky. So he's actually proof that the right book can have a huge impact on developing a young child's love of books and reading in the early years. Great bio, Rory.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

So Rory Laughing Bath follows a playful family of giraffes as they splash, sing, and joke through their bedtime routine. It's a high-energy story and it's full of splishy, splashy joy. What was the spark that led to this giraffe-themed bathtime bonanza?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Well, I was really thinking about what the universal tug of war that that all parents have at the end of the day when you're tired, your keep the tired maybe a little bit feral, and sometimes bath time just really feels like a chore and like the last thing you want to do. And I kind of wanted to foot that, and I thought, well, giraffes are naturally fun to look at. They rhyme, giraffe rhymes at baths, so there's that correlation there. And I wanted to, I just thought all those long necks and spots and whatnot, putting them in a tub with just add the humour and some dilly-dalling fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

Oh, fantastic. It certainly is fun. And I love how the story highlights those simplest everyday routines, just like bath time. And it's often a really wonderful time for the developing child. And your story is just wrapped in humor and love. So would you mind reading a little snippet for us?

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah, sure. Bubbles bubbles everywhere. We make beards and silly hair, we splash each other, and then too. If you were here, we'd splash you.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Oh, that sounds so great. And I think it provides a wonderful opportunity for educators to explore those things which are quite interconnected, of family and those home life, everyday rituals. But it also can encourage children to use their imagination to transform those daily routines and hygiene, which we have to kind of look after our bodies every day that way, and can kind of transform it into joy and connection between children and their families. So let's dive into discussing the book's themes around family and those daily routines. So bathtime is a wonderful opportunity for developmental play and that imagination and connection between the child and parent, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Definitely. So like bathroom routines provide an essential sense of safety and control, and they're also part of the prime play space. With my young daughter, I use that opportunity to, you know, do it's where it's where you have a point where your child is in a safe place there, but they're also in a stationary place. So it gives you the opportunity to really get some play involved and get some certain return going on. And I want to show that hygiene isn't just a task to be ticked off, it's a role point of connection. And when parents lean into spishy splashy fun, they're getting not just getting the kids clean, but supporting cognitive and emotional growth through shared laughter and discovery. And it's where some of the deepest bonds happen.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a subtle but important message that I noticed within your picture book about the role of an adult in a young child's play. So the giraffe characters in the picture book aren't just standing by with a towel ready for their child when they get out of the bath. They're actually engaging in the play, you know, they're making faces and they're singing songs. So, how important is it for parents to be active players in these types of home routines with their children?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Honestly, it's everything. Play is a child's language, it's what they love most. And when a parent joins in the imagination of the bath, he bubbles into hats or sing silly songs, they tell their child, I see you and I value your world. And just it's just such an amazing opportunity to engage with your child.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

Absolutely. And I have to say, Rory, one of the things that I absolutely love about how you've written this picture book is how it reaches out and pulls the listener into the story. So you've used that technique of direct address, you know, that helps the child feel like they're a character in that giraffe family. So when the book says, you know, do you know the bathtime song? We'll teach it to you, sing along, you know, it breaks that fourth wall and it's no longer just a story about the giraffe. The children are actively involved in it themselves, aren't they?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, and I think that Brent Wilson's illustrations in this really do complement that as well, because sort of often throughout the book, the giraffes are looking directly at the child, so they can really feel like they are being spoken to.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Absolutely, and I think educators who are listening today, this is a powerful pedagogical tool that we can actually use with rhyming picture books, and we call it interactive or dialogic reading. So by inviting children to chant and sing, or if there is a rhyme in a picture book through that shared reading, we're actually encouraging children to be active participants in their own learning, and that's a great interactive read-aloud approach, which focuses on that active engagement, and we're developing children's language and understandings. So for educators, it's actually called the peer sequence, and it was developed by Grover J. Whitehurst. So while we're reading picture books like Laugh in the Bath together with young children, we can share ideas about the text together and encourage that deeper engagement. So we could prompt first for children to say something about the book. So we could point to the illustrations of the giraffe and ask children, for example, what is the giraffe doing with the bubbles? And then we can evaluate the child's response with some praise or confirmation of what they've said, and then expand on that response. So we add some more details. So if the child, for example, says washing, the educator might say, Yes, he's using the sparkly bubbles to wash his long spotted neck. And then that peer response, the letter R as part of that word is repeat. So then we can repeat what we've said and encourage the child to say it back. And this rhythmic back and forth builds that splishy, splashy vocabulary, those beautiful words that you've used in the book, Rory, and also empowers children to take on the active role in the narrative, which supports their oral language development and their comprehension. So that leads us nicely into the rollicking rhyme in this story. And as early childhood educators, we know that the EYLF version 2.0 learning outcome 5.2 explains how children gain meaning from text through rhythm and repetition. So, Rory, why was it important for you to include rhyme throughout this story?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

I think rhyme is so important for a young child's early literacy development. It helps them anticipate what's coming next, which builds confidence. They feel like they know what's happening. When a child shouts out the rhyming word before you turn the page, that shows you that they're listening and that they're recognising the patterns. And it's something I do when I go into schools and talk with the kids. I like to all my books rhyme and I like to try test that engagement and sort of ask if they particularly some of my books have page turns and Lartha Bath has one too. And you can so you can ask the kids, oh, what do you think is gonna happen next? And it's such joy when they get the answer.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Yeah, and it really develops those beginning reading skills, you know, when children can read the book themselves when they're not actually looking at the words or the printers yet, but they're using the pictures to predict what's coming next. And it builds that phonological awareness. And I love the words in your picture book, Laugh in the Bath, like pools are cool, and we've said splishy splashy, and you mentioned before dilly-dallying. So it's such a rich vocabulary, but it keeps that bouncing tempo so children are really engaged in the story while we're engaging in shared reading experience with them. So I think it's so important for our early childhood libraries to include quality Australian picture books, like your Laugh in the Bath, Rory, which includes that lyrical and that rhythmic text, and also picture books that include some figurative language, like the similes and metaphors, and onomatopoeia, which you've included, like words that imitate a sound. So those water sounds like things like squosh or gurgle or drizzle or splash or drip. Yeah, so we can try and make sure that we're including those kinds of picture books with that language within our services.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah, they definitely do engage kids more. Like even my own daughter, I've had 18 picture books published, but Laugh of the Bath is one that she's newly three, but Laugh of the Bath is one that she really engages with. I think it is that language that she's engaging with.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Yes. And I think this leads us into chatting about a couple of other themes in the picture book, and that's around hygiene, we mentioned earlier, but also humour, especially if children are really engaging with it, because it is a funny book. And I think again, if we go back to the early years learning framework version 2.0, the learning outcome 3 does focus in early childhood education that we support children in becoming aware of their own mental and physical health and that they do learn hygiene practices. So bath time is a great opportunity for toddlers and preschoolers to develop those self-help skills. But Rory, laugh in the bath is of course undeniably funny, but beneath the bubbles, there is an intentional focus on those self-care and hygiene steps that Little Book Press did want to highlight for young families. Things like washing and brushing your teeth. So, as an author, how important was humour in embedding that important messaging about hygiene for young readers?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Oh, humor was so important. Like routines provide an essential sense of safety control, and they're also a prime play safe for building a child's agency. But I do think it's important with picture books and with all forms of literature to make them so that even if you're teaching something, it it's done in a subtle way, and I do that through humour. So, like you can, you know, the messages is all are all still there. In the story, I wanted to show that hygiene isn't just a task with ticked off as a rule or a rule or present by an adult, it's a way to care for our own bodies. And when parents and educators leads to the splashy fun, the helping children develop positive attitudes towards healthy habits.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Yes, oh I completely agree. And I noticed actually in the illustration when you were talking about temperature, the temperature of the water, that the giraffe is holding like a little turtle thermometer. And it's got the number 37 on it, doesn't it? 37 degrees. So it's a great opportunity for learning around science and numeracy skills here. I'm always thinking about early childhood educators when they're reading it, how can they extend with on that picture book within other areas of their classroom? So I think they could look at what the numbers are, 37, and how does that link to temperature and how warm is that or how cool is that, and kind of testing that in different science experiments as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah, and it's it was important to pull up the little book press to have that sort of messaging in there, done itself away, because this book was included in packs that went out to every kid studying kidney in South Australia last year. So a lot of those kids might have their books in home, and so this was a book that would provide some messaging for them and but also for their parents to learn about those key elements that would keep their kids safe, but also get them clean, have the having good hygiene stuff.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

Oh, it's so important. So that again leads well into our next part of the podcast where we're going to share how educators and parents can bring life in the bath to life through play. So whether that be in early learning settings or at home. So one of the first story-inspired ideas I wanted to share is a bedtime map mural. And this is a great way where you can bridge the book's narrative with the children's own home lies and their rituals that they might have at bedtime. So after reading the story, you can gather the children round and you could have a large roll of butcher's paper and invite the children to help map out the journey for them, each individual child, from the dinner table to the pillow. So on that paper, they could draw different points along the paper of what they do, and you could have different props to kind of prompt them about what might happen at the time routine. So you could have like a small basin or a little bath toy to represent the bath, you could have a toothbrush, you could have some pajamas or some little pillows for bedtime. And as children move along the paper, we can ask them, you know, in the book, the giraffes had bubbly long necks, but what do you do to get ready for bed? And invite them to document on the mural. And they can be drawing their pictures or painting, and we can actually scribe their stories for them. You can always feel free to add in if you want to see that if you want me to respond that I can. Okay. Sometimes it makes it sound better.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Well, actually, okay. It was really cool. Actually, I saw there's a local bookshop to me called the Sweet Plot Bookshop, and they have a play time every Monday. And just last week they did laugh in the bath, and I think they got out some some lentils, and then they used the lentils rather than using like warm water or anything, they use lentils as a form to represent the bath and have some giraffe animals in there and the lentils getting washed and scrubbed and all that textured play, which was I think kids really engage with.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Oh, that's fantastic. I love just bringing stories to life in different ways through play for young children. And so I think we were talking a bit before about numeracy with the numbers on the temperature. And so another way that we could weave numeracy into play is by looking at the beautiful illustrations of Brent Wilson's in the picture book. So the giraffes obviously have really elegant long necks that kind of stretch across some of the pages. So I think that's a great invitation to explore height and scale with young children. So to follow up again after you've read Laugh in the Bath, you could set up some yellow play-doh and then add in some brown pebbles or rocks that would represent the giraffe spots. And then you could also add some measuring tools, but these are non-standard units of measurement. So for early childhood, we're starting with things like cubes or wooden blocks or even some lengths of string. And then we can invite children to see how long they can stretch their play-doh to recreate the giraffe's neck in the book, and then of course facilitate that learning outcome for around using mathematical ideas by asking questions like how many cubes tall is your giraffe's neck, or is your neck longer or shorter than the giraffe's neck in the book? And that those cubes or those other non-standard units of measurement provide a great concrete way for preschool to begin to understand those early numeracy skills.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Definitely. Actually, it's funny you mentioned the uh the Australians in that regard because I know there's a little bugbear of Brent's is that the cover in on the cover you got dad and the two children. And that it's really it's such a cute image. But Brett Brett always says how to get that image, technically, dad would have to be laying completely flat on the ground, and then because his neck isn't super long, so and also we know a juror stick is quite long, so yeah, but that's a little bugbear of his, but it's such a cute image though.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

It really is. Yeah, they all look like they're having so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

So, and then the third play provocation that I was inspired by your picture book is around sensory play. So I imagine, and you mentioned before that at the bookshop they were using lentils. So I guess to extend on that sensory play, we could use some warm bubbly water and we could add in some yellow toy giraffes and maybe some sponges and some scrubbing brushes or some other bath toys. And then we can invite the children by saying, you know, these are the giraffes in Rory's story, and they have so many spots to clean, you know, can we help clean them and get them all sparkly, ready for bed? So it's an inviting way, I think, for young children, particularly toddlers, to help them practice that language of hygiene, you know, washing and rinsing, and of course they're building their fine motor skills by washing the giraffe toys. So, how can that type of play experience help young children retell your story in their own words and ways?

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Props and puppets can help children get the character and engage in play and retell simple stories like Laugh in the Bath, bit of a logical sequence, and it also helps them develop language and literacy skills. And I just think there's so many opportunities for that in Laugh the Bath.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Absolutely. Well, that actually brings us to the end of today's episode. So Laugh in the Bath is a heartwarming, hilarious must-have that turns daily routines into a whole load of fun. So, Rory, thank you so much for joining us here on the Learn Play Thrive Little Library.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Thanks for having me with us. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

And we'd love to see your bathtime inspired play. So feel free to share some photos of learning experiences that you've set up that have been inspired by Rory's picture book, Laugh in the Bar. And you can use hashtag LPT Little Library to tag us on Instagram or Facebook. So until next time, keep reading, playing and thriving.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Learn Play Thrive the podcast. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to fill your journey in early childhood education. Remember the key to fostering learning, promoting play, and empowering young minds lies within your dedication and creativity. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, rate, or review our podcast on your favourite platform. Your feedback helps us to continue to deliver content that resonates with you. And don't forget to visit us at our website at learnplaythrive.com.au for additional resources, blog posts, and professional development opportunities. Until next time, keep learning, keep playing, and keep thriving. We'll see you in the next episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast.