Down by the Bay (Raffi Songs to Read) by unknown (unknown Edition) [Boardbook(1999)]

Raffi Songs to Read

by Unknown Author

In this song, two children imagine their mothers asking, "Did you ever see a goose kissing a moose, a fly wearing a tie, or llamas eating pajamas down by the bay?"

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Music, Storytime, Poetry, Humor, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

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Reviews

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a silly, entirely enjoyable and lighthearted singing book, illustrated with two children trading turns to introduce the verses of this popular Raffi song (score included). Each verse is illustrated with the animal in the child's home. The song is particularly upbeat and fun for children, who can memorize the lyrics and sing it themselves; but the illustrations, while funny, are fairly average.

I especially enjoy this book paired with the version of the song performed by Eric Heatherly on Country Goes Raffi (although this album contains some other songs that are so annoying I burned an edited copy to play in our home). Another good transition-to-reading book.

[Tymia Woods]

Reading this book made me think about the first time that I heard this rhyming song. I remembered it from the barney songs when I was younger but I could not remember the sequence or lyrics until reading through this book.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

2/24/2025 - One of my favorite songs! Love the illustrations too.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for the little ones. Short, easy to read and sing along with the Raffi song... We've read this one over and over and over again and it doesn't get old. As far as I'm concerned, that makes this a wonderful book!

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful rhyming book that is great for reading to pre-readers or having an early reader read. Also great for having fun making spinoffs.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this mom… well?

[Ally Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Down By The Bay is an engaging children's book about a catchy song. The song is about a mom, daughter, and her son. It is written in the children's perspective. The song goes through different things they will see down by the bay, and what their mom would say about the objects. The purpose of it is to make kids remember and practice rhyme sequences.
This is a cute story kids will remember because there is a song that goes with it. The illustrations are more old-fashioned like, watercolors are used throughout the illustrations and they are very bright and colorful. The drawings are not organized in a specific way, the illustrator draws outside the lines to create a 'messy' look. This is an engaging book for children because it has bright colors and has a song to go along with it so the child can stay engaged and sing along. This book is directed towards early readers such as kindergarteners and first-graders.

[Mama Bibliosoph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raffi is pure nostalgia and his songs have endured. Some of his hits have been made into picture books as part of the Raffi Songs to Read series. I'd definitely recommend giving your kids the treat of listening to a Raffi album and then reading these books.

This book does a wonderful job of realizing the silliness of the traditional campfire song. In Nadine Bernard's interpretation, two children play outside and seem to be trying to one-up each other with ever more outrageous and funny rhymes.

This is a great one for our kids because the song lyrics repeat except for the fill-in rhyme. When kids are ready, they can try going faster with each verse, like Raffi does, and make up their own lyrics to practice rhyming. Parents can model this.

Also traditional is for someone to sing the words while another echoes them. If your child has echolalia, put that skill to a very functional, social use!

[Kiersten Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. This book has not received any awards.
2. It is appropriate for preschool through 1st grade.
3. The main character knows of a place down from his home, the bay. Each time in the song where he says that he "dare not go," it is because his mother will tell him about an animal by the bay doing a silly action. This is repeated throughout the song.
4. I think that this song book would be great for the targeted audience. It is a great, fun way to teach students about rhymes and repetition. It is also a good book so that the students can see the pictures that go along with the song.
5. This could be used in a class when teaching rhyming. Instead of using nursery rhymes and poems, song books like this one could be used. Another way this book could be used in class is to make a class book. Students could use their imagination to come up with different animals doing human-like actions.

[Marissa Ebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This song has not won any awards.

"Down by the Bay" is appropriate for children ages 2 to 8.

This song is about seeing different animals down by the bay. It is a very catchy and repetitive song, and the lyrics are silly. There is a lot of rhyming as well, and this makes the lyrics a little ridiculous, which children love.

I grew up hearing this song, and I remember learning it in elementary school music class. I still remember some of the lyrics, because they were so unique that they were hard to forget. Everyone loved this song, and it will stick with those who hear it for a long time after.

This song can be used to teach rhymes to the class, by asking students to indicate which words rhyme. They can also be asked to create their own words from the rhymes. Also, you can ask students to look at the lyrics and find words that contain vowel teams.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Picture Book: Baby Board Book
Awards: None
Audience: Babies to Pre-K
A. This is a board book because it is made out of a thick board material, it is easy to flip the pages, and would be very hard to tear them.
B. This book is illustrated using simple colors that kids first learn to name (blue, green, yellow, pink, and red). The illustrator also matches the colors of the objects described in the book, such as the pink polka-dot tail o n the whale down by the bay.
C. I would use this book with babies or toddlers in a daycare/at home setting. I would possibly read it before a nap time, or allow them to hold onto the book and play with it. Board books are made solid for babies to hold and sometimes even put their mouth on, so I would not use it to do much teaching but more for enjoyment.
D. What do you see on the whale down by the bay? A polka-dot tail!

[Nora Towner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up singing this song in kindergarten, so reading it to my newborn is fun.

[Selena Richins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Down by the Bay is a book that is based off a a song that many children may know. The song is basically focusing on going down to the bay and seeing crazy things happen. This book continues on the same way throughout the book. This book is something that I enjoy because it incorporates music into literacy. I think that this book is fun to read to students for that particular reason. I remember reading this book and singing along to it when I was in elementary. The illustrations also portray what is being said in the song very clearly. I could use this book in a classroom by reading it to the class and then observe their rhyme, rhythm and repetition skills. Then I will ask students to give me examples from the book of words that rhyme to see if students understand what rhyming is.

[Melanie Vacco · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. No awards
2. Grade level: Pre-k to second grade.
3. This is a story about two children imagining their mother saying outrageous and silly things while they are by the bay. There is a repetitive few lines (chorus.) The book includes a lot of rhymes.
4. I liked the silly illustrations and ideas throughout the book. I enjoyed that there were lots of rhyming words to strengthen children’s language skills. I really liked when towards the end they tried to rhyme something with orange and they could not, which would be a great time to explain to children that not all words can rhyme with others.
5. This would be useful in the classroom for rhyming activities. The children could have words and/or pictures of things and pair them together if they rhyme.

[Kara Danford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Board Book
Awards: None
Audience: Pre-K to Kindergarten
A. This book has board pages and has mostly pictures with minimal words on each page.
B. Illustrator Nadine Bernard Westcott uses the visual element of line in her pictures. She draws uneven horizontal lines to help illustrate the movement of the waves on the bay.
C. I would use this book as a read aloud with young toddlers who are building their oral language and beginning to learn about reading skills such as how to handle a book and turn pages. Board books are very good for this purpose because it is easier for young children who are still developing fine motor skills to manipulate.
D. What was growing down by the bay? Watermelons

[Francesca Brilli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Bay is another popular children’s song published as a book. This story follows a little boy and his friend as they share crazy rhymes originated by his mother. It encourages children to be creative and have fun with rhyming and words through music. The pages are water colored, although all the characters seem to be Aryan. The colors are all very vibrant and very bright. Included in the back of the book is the sheet music that goes along with the story of the song. This book is a lot of fun to read with little kids, because after the first two verses, they really catch on to the chorus and get really engaged into the story.

[Kendall Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Bay is a book that is fully based of the original song "Down by the Bay". It is a song that rhythms and is very fun for children to sing. It teaches them how to rhythm with a sequence and they get to be silly reading it because it is a very up beat song.

The originally song was written in 1976 and the book was illustrated in 1995. I think this book is aimed more towards first-third graders because the song is pretty lengthy. The pictures go along very well with the song/book and it is very colorful so I'm sure the children really enjoy looking at the pictures while singing along.

[Lisa Losito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Bay is the sort of Iconic children’s song’s that we can all still love today. It follows a rhyming pattern. Popular versions begin with a bear combing his hair and can continue to any number of things, as long as they’re strange and rhyme.
This is a board book that was in my school's library. It’s got fun illustrations done by Raffi Cavoukian and being a board book is durable for multiple different settings.
This is an appropriate book for multiple different grade levels, primarily pre-k and kindergarten It can be used to help teach rhyming. It's a fun song to sing with the children to keep their engagement and to help them with rhyming words.

[Erika L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

We did this for our choral reader at Book Babies today, and the babies LOVED it! The parents and caregivers all sang along, too! I usually have one or two adults that don't read or sing along during Book Babies, which is totally fine, but I was so glad to see them open up today. I think it's because this is a fun, classic song from our childhood. Because the parents had fun singing along, the babies were at full attention during the entire book! This was surprising to me, since it was a bit too long for a board book, and I planned on cutting it short when their attention started drifting--it was amazing to see they were captivated the whole time!

[Jill Stroup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Bay was one of my favorite children's books when growing up. I thought it was hilarious, and I still almost all of the different verses. This is another one of those books that can either be read or sung, which makes it easier for children to remember. This is a great book to read to preschool children, to help them understand the difference between realistic situations and fantasy situations. The literature is age appropriate and the picture provide a visual for the kids to see if the situations could be real or not.

[Shannon Brasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Bay is a book in the Songs to Read series by Raffi. This book is an illustrated version of the song, Down by the Bay. Children will laugh at all the silly rhymes such as “a whale with a polka dot tale” and “a fly wearing a tie.” As a parent and future teacher, I appreciated how at the end of the book the sheet music to the song is included. Now you can take the book one step further and play an instrument in addition to singing and viewing the illustrations. This book would be a great addition in any preschool or kindergarten classroom.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVE this song. I think it works better as a song than a book. I like the illustrations but they are a bit too muted, especially considering the vibrancy of the song. I guess I didn't fall in love with this book because the song is imaginative and it's great to have your own image appear in your mind for each of the things that are down by the bay, which is better than having someone else's pictures presented for you.

[Karen Kessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awards: None
Grade Level: Pre-k/Kindergarten
Summary: A mother asks her children silly questions by asking outrageous rhymes by the bay.
Review: This book can be a catchy, fun way to introdue rhymes to the children. This can strengthen the children's language skills.
Activities: Rhyming is important in the book, so matching words together by identfying rhyming words would be an appropriate activity for the children.

[Emaleigh Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Bay by Raffi is a great book for preschool aged children. This book is great for your school library with the song like reading. Raffi Songs to Read is a calming way to support something that can be easily read daily to your preschool students. Raffi has tons of lovely and calming songs and poems that are great for preschoolers. This book fosters a wide vocabulary of animals like a moose among other things with colorful pictures.

[Katie]

I actually had no idea for the longest time that this was a book. I heard the song long before I read the story. Both are great for rhyming and you can incorporate the story into doing other activities. I have seen people have the children make the characters from the story as well as do the sing alongs.

[Samantha Penrose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has very cute pictures, and the music is included in the back....I just thought that the last couple of pages/last verse of the song was rather awkward.....They supply a non-rhyme for the "did you ever have a time when you couldn't make a rhyme" verse.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny things happen down by the bay like a goose kissing a moose, a whale with a polka dot tail, a fly wearing a tie, a bear combing his hair, llamas eating pajamas, an apple wearing a bapple and orange eating a blouse.
Good for phonemic awareness.

[Mary]

If you want to sing, Raffi has a great song version of this book. The story just resinates rhyming and making up words. The illustrations draw the children to the page and the rhyming keeps them engaged.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another option for Boogie Woogie books, this title is part of Raffi's "Songs to Read" series. When it comes to song books, Nadine Bernard Westcott is the premier illustrator, adding humor and bright colors in her supplement to the books.

[Ginna]

Awesome book!
I will use this book as a tool for rhyming! The book has silly rhymes and I can't wait to see what the children can come up with.
For example:
Use animal cards and help students to make a rhyme with the name of the animal (Did you ever see a cat wearing a ______? (hat))