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Washy Wash! And Other Healthy Habits
Sesame Street's Elmo, Big Bird, and their friends share fun rhyming rules for washing hands, social distancing, and staying healthy in this engaging board book featuring the lyrics to the Washy Wash song from the popular video!
Elmo, Big Bird, and their Sesame Street friends know that good hygiene is more important than ever now. This rhyming board book features fun ways for young girls and boys to stay healthy. From the right way to wash your hands--including the lyrics to the Sesame Street Washy Wash song from the popular video!--to leaving six feet between you and others, kids will learn that "The best way to take care of others is to take care of YOU!"
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, aims to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder through its many unique domestic and international initiatives. These projects cover a wide array of topics for families around the world.
Elmo, Big Bird, and their Sesame Street friends know that good hygiene is more important than ever now. This rhyming board book features fun ways for young girls and boys to stay healthy. From the right way to wash your hands--including the lyrics to the Sesame Street Washy Wash song from the popular video!--to leaving six feet between you and others, kids will learn that "The best way to take care of others is to take care of YOU!"
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, aims to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder through its many unique domestic and international initiatives. These projects cover a wide array of topics for families around the world.
26 pages, Board Book
First published August 11, 2020
1 person is currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Paul Roberts
228 books10 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 2, 2021
Take this review with a slight grain of salt.
I have never actually watched Sesame Street. I know, I know, I'm of the generation where it's quintessential to everyone's childhood, but we didn't actually own a television until I was eight, and then we moved to South America, where Sesame Street didn't exist, so I've completely missed out on this cultural phenomenon. As a result, I don't have any nostalgia linking me to what is for many, a pleasant childhood memory, full of warm fuzziness. Also, as a result, I tend to read more than I watch television, which as far as I'm concerned is a positive outcome.
So, what is this book? It's a children's book that makes use of beloved characters in order to preach social messaging about COVID to children. It's got washing hands: yay, go washing hands, great for every day habits. It's got mask wearing: specifically "when everyone is feeling better" and everyone is outside playing at a park. What is that about? People who read this are going to automatically assume that I'm anti-mask. Well, no, actually, I've lived in Asia. I wore a mask every time I got on a plane long before it became a social faux pas not to do so. If I get a sniffle, I wear a mask because I don't want to take the risk of spreading something to my students or colleagues. But come on, outside? Where is the data that show COVID spreading outdoors? It's got social distancing of six feet, where did that number even come from? Everyone assumes that there is some sort of double blind study that led to this stricture, there isn't. It's got spend time at home and call people or wave at them through an ipad being presented as social contact. What on earth? Why are people publishing children's books delineating behavior that's appropriate for a once in a century pandemic? What is their marketing company thinking? Is this story, I hesitate to call it such, going to be in demand after 2020 and 2021? Are the habits they are advocating actually 'healthy'? Are they effective in the long term? Are we supposed to incorporate them into our lives post-COVID? And if we aren't, what was the point of writing the book in the first place?
I thought this was going to be a little book about the importance of washing your hands, which is indeed a very important lesson for young children to learn, but instead it's a series of lessons on how to isolate children from social development. Let's advocate wearing masks forever, when we don't know the long-term effects it has on childhood development. Let's advocate social distancing when we don't know the long term effects it has on social and emotional and cognitive development. Let's advocate fear when we do know the effects it has on social development. Let's advocate for a hygienic, clean, germless environment for the rest of our natural lives when we already know that this results in lower immune responses. I suppose I should be thankful that they aren't telling everyone to use antibacterial soap...yes, let's create super bugs that don't respond to normal methods of killing them. Huzzah. What a great idea.
This book is actually kind of sick. There are 26 pages of it and in half of them the characters are presented as alone in their rooms. Yes, that is incredibly healthy for small children. Let's isolate them. Let's forget that we are social creatures and that we need society and human connection. Let's forget that social isolation is correlated with depression, developmental losses, suicidality, shorter life spans, cognitive disability, emotional processing problems, behavioral problems, lower IQ, eating disorders, etc. etc. etc. Let's take one aspect of human life: physical health and make it all-encompassing and important and ignore other aspects of human life that are equally enriching.
I suppose one of the primary reasons that I find this book distasteful is because it's preaching. I hate preachy books. If I want to be preached at, I will go to church. If I'm picking up a book in order to be entertained or learn something, I want to come away from it having been entertained or having learned something. I don't want to come away feeling as though the almighty author from on high is lecturing me on what is proper to think and how it is proper to act. If I pick up a book on "How to act during COVID-19" I would go in prepared, knowing what the topic of the book is ahead of time and then proceed to think critically about what I am reading and take what is good from the book and reject what is bad. But that's not what this book does: it advertises itself as a book on healthy habits, not "habits that are good to have during COVID-19" but just overall healthy habits. Really? Are they actually healthy? What is your definition of healthy? Purely physical? Are they even purely physically healthy? What would society be like if we operated under everything proscribed in this book? Would society even exist? Did the authors bother to think about the long term ramifications of what they are advocating?
I can't believe I just wrote a review that is about 30 times longer than the actual book that I'm reviewing. But I think it's important to think deeply about the things that I am reading, and the information that we are percolating throughout society. We are a reactive species. Something happens, and we react, and our reactions are not always the best, in many cases they are counterproductive and short-sighted and don't consider the long-term ramifications. That is what this book is. I don't think it will sell very successfully in the long run, except for the fact that the title is misleading and people will buy it thinking that it's just about habits like washing hands and brushing teeth before bed and then will be sadly disappointed because it teaches behavioral patterns that are impractical in the long run.
Story: Preachy
Art: Meh
Price: $7.99
I have never actually watched Sesame Street. I know, I know, I'm of the generation where it's quintessential to everyone's childhood, but we didn't actually own a television until I was eight, and then we moved to South America, where Sesame Street didn't exist, so I've completely missed out on this cultural phenomenon. As a result, I don't have any nostalgia linking me to what is for many, a pleasant childhood memory, full of warm fuzziness. Also, as a result, I tend to read more than I watch television, which as far as I'm concerned is a positive outcome.
So, what is this book? It's a children's book that makes use of beloved characters in order to preach social messaging about COVID to children. It's got washing hands: yay, go washing hands, great for every day habits. It's got mask wearing: specifically "when everyone is feeling better" and everyone is outside playing at a park. What is that about? People who read this are going to automatically assume that I'm anti-mask. Well, no, actually, I've lived in Asia. I wore a mask every time I got on a plane long before it became a social faux pas not to do so. If I get a sniffle, I wear a mask because I don't want to take the risk of spreading something to my students or colleagues. But come on, outside? Where is the data that show COVID spreading outdoors? It's got social distancing of six feet, where did that number even come from? Everyone assumes that there is some sort of double blind study that led to this stricture, there isn't. It's got spend time at home and call people or wave at them through an ipad being presented as social contact. What on earth? Why are people publishing children's books delineating behavior that's appropriate for a once in a century pandemic? What is their marketing company thinking? Is this story, I hesitate to call it such, going to be in demand after 2020 and 2021? Are the habits they are advocating actually 'healthy'? Are they effective in the long term? Are we supposed to incorporate them into our lives post-COVID? And if we aren't, what was the point of writing the book in the first place?
I thought this was going to be a little book about the importance of washing your hands, which is indeed a very important lesson for young children to learn, but instead it's a series of lessons on how to isolate children from social development. Let's advocate wearing masks forever, when we don't know the long-term effects it has on childhood development. Let's advocate social distancing when we don't know the long term effects it has on social and emotional and cognitive development. Let's advocate fear when we do know the effects it has on social development. Let's advocate for a hygienic, clean, germless environment for the rest of our natural lives when we already know that this results in lower immune responses. I suppose I should be thankful that they aren't telling everyone to use antibacterial soap...yes, let's create super bugs that don't respond to normal methods of killing them. Huzzah. What a great idea.
This book is actually kind of sick. There are 26 pages of it and in half of them the characters are presented as alone in their rooms. Yes, that is incredibly healthy for small children. Let's isolate them. Let's forget that we are social creatures and that we need society and human connection. Let's forget that social isolation is correlated with depression, developmental losses, suicidality, shorter life spans, cognitive disability, emotional processing problems, behavioral problems, lower IQ, eating disorders, etc. etc. etc. Let's take one aspect of human life: physical health and make it all-encompassing and important and ignore other aspects of human life that are equally enriching.
I suppose one of the primary reasons that I find this book distasteful is because it's preaching. I hate preachy books. If I want to be preached at, I will go to church. If I'm picking up a book in order to be entertained or learn something, I want to come away from it having been entertained or having learned something. I don't want to come away feeling as though the almighty author from on high is lecturing me on what is proper to think and how it is proper to act. If I pick up a book on "How to act during COVID-19" I would go in prepared, knowing what the topic of the book is ahead of time and then proceed to think critically about what I am reading and take what is good from the book and reject what is bad. But that's not what this book does: it advertises itself as a book on healthy habits, not "habits that are good to have during COVID-19" but just overall healthy habits. Really? Are they actually healthy? What is your definition of healthy? Purely physical? Are they even purely physically healthy? What would society be like if we operated under everything proscribed in this book? Would society even exist? Did the authors bother to think about the long term ramifications of what they are advocating?
I can't believe I just wrote a review that is about 30 times longer than the actual book that I'm reviewing. But I think it's important to think deeply about the things that I am reading, and the information that we are percolating throughout society. We are a reactive species. Something happens, and we react, and our reactions are not always the best, in many cases they are counterproductive and short-sighted and don't consider the long-term ramifications. That is what this book is. I don't think it will sell very successfully in the long run, except for the fact that the title is misleading and people will buy it thinking that it's just about habits like washing hands and brushing teeth before bed and then will be sadly disappointed because it teaches behavioral patterns that are impractical in the long run.
Story: Preachy
Art: Meh
Price: $7.99
August 3, 2022
Elmo kind of went off on this one, 10/10
January 13, 2021
This is fine, but I wish that this board book had made it clearer that wearing masks and social distancing is a new and temporary phenomenon. The advice about handwashing will always apply, but the focus on "healthy habits" seems to imply that everything related to COVID-19 mitigation is normative for life, which may confuse small children.
January 15, 2023
This book definitely was made for COVID times. I think it was a great book for when covid was at its peak. It explains covid rules to young kids. But not that we are posts-pandemic, it really has lost its relevance. There are other books that teach ostrich hygiene without explaining 6-feet apart, video chatting, and mask wearing.
January 19, 2023
Washy Wash! And Other Healthy Habits is not about washing hands and basic hygiene like I originally thought. This book was written during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and was maybe appropriate for those initial few months of the pandemic. However, the habits that the book teaches and portrays are not healthy long-term. The book teaches about social distancing, which is basically isolation. A young child will not necessarily understand the temporariness of the Covid precautions. Their brain does not have the ability to think and reason through things like an adult or even a much older child could. I think this book is very dangerous for them because they could easily conclude that isolation, being with friends, wearing a mask, etc. are normal and healthy. However, these precautions are unhealthy for the long-term.
I also find this book very lengthy and wordy for a young child to understand. At first, I thought the song could be a fun way to help children wash their hands well, but after listening to it, I found it very annoying. If I was a parent, I would not want my children to learn that song because they would be singing it all day long. I would just have them sing the Alphabet song once or twice through instead of this song.
Spiritually, this book has some serious implications. First, it visibly demonstrates and encourages social distancing, which is basically isolation. For the believer, this is contrary to the way that God commands and encourages us to be in community and fellowship with other people in the local church. God has also created all humans to be relational, and being separated from people for so long is very unhealthy. Teaching kids to social distance is not teaching them healthy habits, as the books says. This book also has the potential to introduce several fears into a young child’s mind. For instance, the child is learning to be afraid to be around their friends and other people. As I said earlier, young children do not have the reasoning capacity that adults have to understand that social distancing is only for a time and if you are sick. Their undeveloped minds are going to quickly conclude that is bad to be around people. Again, this will lead to isolation and unhealthy habits in their lives.
I also find this book very lengthy and wordy for a young child to understand. At first, I thought the song could be a fun way to help children wash their hands well, but after listening to it, I found it very annoying. If I was a parent, I would not want my children to learn that song because they would be singing it all day long. I would just have them sing the Alphabet song once or twice through instead of this song.
Spiritually, this book has some serious implications. First, it visibly demonstrates and encourages social distancing, which is basically isolation. For the believer, this is contrary to the way that God commands and encourages us to be in community and fellowship with other people in the local church. God has also created all humans to be relational, and being separated from people for so long is very unhealthy. Teaching kids to social distance is not teaching them healthy habits, as the books says. This book also has the potential to introduce several fears into a young child’s mind. For instance, the child is learning to be afraid to be around their friends and other people. As I said earlier, young children do not have the reasoning capacity that adults have to understand that social distancing is only for a time and if you are sick. Their undeveloped minds are going to quickly conclude that is bad to be around people. Again, this will lead to isolation and unhealthy habits in their lives.
January 29, 2021
Well Sesame Street wasted no time in getting a pandemic board book out. Oliver is deeply obsessed with masking and hand sanitizer (but we struggle with hand washing, go figure). So when we went to the bookstore he picked out this book despite swearing up and down that he is scared of Elmo. Whatever. Anyway, this is a good very basic book about taking care of yourself and that way you can take care of others. Needed a bit more work with transitions. There's also a song and you will have to sing it if you're reading it out loud but I am not a musician so I just kind of made up a tune.
June 7, 2021
Way too wordy for a board book. The book looks like one you'd pick up for 0-2 year olds but there's a paragraph on at least every other page and it's long for a board book. There's also way too many concepts for this age group (it's not just washing hands, it's 6 feet apart, masking up, staying home). And on that note, it's definitely agenda oriented. Hardly any sesame street characters are mentioned and there is no main character. In a different format, for an older audience, and/or if written last year, I'd give it more stars.
January 15, 2023
Ehh…I was good through the hand washing part. The washy song was really annoying. My littler kids would like it, but I won’t teach it to them because…annoying. There’s better ones. That wasn’t the end of the world though, or the book, unfortunately. It sounded a lot like early childhood indoctrination of practices that are not being are not being presented in a way that’s consistent with evidence. I’m all for masking and staying home when you’re sick, but this book went beyond that. When you’re pushing something that has no basis in reality you’re pushing your ideals. Pass on that.
April 9, 2021
Baby's first pandemic book. Sigh. It's probably harder for us adults to accept that this book needs to exist than for the kids. This is their normal, now and likely in the future. Kudos to Sesame Street for taking this on.
January 18, 2023
Washy Wash! And Other Healthy Habits was my least favorite out of the books that we read last week. I was never big into Elmo or Sesame Street growing up so this one did not really resonate with me in any way. The whole idea of the book being one about personal hygiene is not something that I would have found myself reading and enjoying as a kid. The artwork and style of the book is also not very appealing and makes it look cheap in my opinion. I like message of being clean and staying healthy, just now the delivery method used in this book. I can also see the value of young kids reading this book and becoming aware of how important small things like washing your hands can be. This book was not my favorite, but I can see the value in it.
December 2, 2025
This book was definitely written during the height of Covid-19 (whatever that means, I wasn't alive for it) but I think it still has some great tips for staying healthy! The washy wash song could be better though.
January 24, 2022
Would be more enjoyable for families who encourage the masking and distancing of their children from their friends. Good hand-washing can be taught from another book.
- Heather's mom, 1/23/2022
- Heather's mom, 1/23/2022
February 6, 2024
I really appreciated the washy wash song
March 7, 2026
A cute book for kids that helped normalize our lives during the pandemic, with a little help from our Sesame Street friend—of course!
January 19, 2023
I did not like this book, as a children's book I think it was too political. The title of the book says it is about health and washing your hands and it looks like it will be a cute children's book. The author makes it seem that the child will learn about what it means to wash your hands. The beginning of the book starts as that but then it goes into what seems like having an underlying message about Covid nineteen. It seems the book enforces fear on the child to wash your hands and be germ free. The characters have masks on in the book which also shows that this book is more about covid. I do not recommend this book to anyone especially for little kids to read.
July 2, 2021
In a few years this will feel dated and I hope kids wonder why they are all wearing masks. But this would be a good 2020 book to help kids understand.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews