Mary Ann Dudko

Barney’s Alphabet Soup. By Mary Ann Dudko. Photography by Dennis Full. The Lyons Group, 1997. 20 pages. $4.95 brdbk. 1-57064-118-8. Ages 2-5.

Young fans of television’s big purple dinosaur will love this opportunity to learn or practice the alphabet and have fun while doing so. Barney goes through the alphabet while adding ingredients to his pot of soup, from the usual (carrots and onions) to the downright silly (donuts and hotdogs). The photographs are clear and bright, and the book show more presents a close-up of each ingredient so that young toddlers can follow along as the book is read to them. As promised on the very first page, this is a “silly alphabet soup”: children will delight in the odd combinations of ingredients thrown hodge-podge into the pot by the dinosaur-turned-chef. Some of the letter and food combinations may run the risk of confusing younger children: “quiche” for “Q” seems like a bit of a stretch for children learning to match letters with their sounds in words, especially as some toddlers might be unfamiliar with the dish. Despite these few missteps, this book captures the lightheartedness and fun that should be at the essence of the toddler learning experience: young children can practice the alphabet while gleefully declaring “Yuck!” as Barney tosses jelly into his soup. Recommended. show less

Time Machine
Barney does it Again (Book of Opposites), February 24, 2005

In this sturdy med-sized board book of opposites the purple wonder teaches all about full/empty, on/off, awake/asleep, open/closed, tall/short, hot/cold, big/little, wet/dry, and front/back.

My children were really attracted to the colorful pictures and I found that there were alot of other ideas to discuss in the book as well. For example, Barney's *shiney* vest, what was actually in Barney's lunchbox (yummy grapes, show more apple, sandwich, etc.) and the fact that there were 3 scoops of ice cream on the cone (1,2,3).

Simply a nice little educational book. show less

I love this book for teaching the alphabet. Very educational and easy to understand for beginning readers. I would recommend this book for young children (pre-k).

great book for small children learning about colors