Stick Man
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson takes about 6.5 minutes to read aloud (731 words, about 3 sentences a page), and it lands best with children aged 3-6.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 6.5 minutes
- Words
- 731
- Sentences a page
- 3
- Re-read tolerance
- 4/5survives a fortnight on repeat
- Vocabulary
- 3/5a few new words
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The useful verdict
Why Stick Man works
'I'm Stick Man, I'm Stick Man, I'M STICK MAN, that's me!' comes back every time he is mistaken for a twig, and the misunderstanding is one a four-year-old can spot before the characters do - dog fetches him, a child uses him as a flag, and the reader is in on it every time.
Before you buy it
Stick Man spends most of the book separated from his family and nearly burnt on a fire; some children find the middle stretch genuinely upsetting.
Themes: family, seasons, christmas, rhyme.
Same shape, new story
Books like Stick Man
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
The Gruffaloabout 6 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Room on the Broomabout 7.5 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Are You My Mother?about 6.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
The Little Engine That Couldabout 10.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
The Night Before Christmasabout 5 minutes · 5/5 re-read
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!about 12.5 minutes · 5/5 re-read
The Gruffalo's Childabout 5.5 minutes · 5/5 re-read
The Spiffiest Giant in Townabout 10 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about Stick Man
- How long does it take to read Stick Man aloud?
- About 6.5 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 731. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is Stick Man actually for?
- Ages 3-6 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 3 sentences a page and vocabulary at 3 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does Stick Man survive being read on repeat?
- Yes. It survives a fortnight of nightly repeats, which is the real test.
- Is Stick Man a good book for a child who will not sit still?
- It helps that it rhymes, and it has a refrain a child can join in with, and it asks the child questions to answer out loud. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.