Joe Mathieu

This book lives in that gray area between fiction and nonfiction. The Cat in the Hat tells young readers all about the different types of primates that exist, including monkeys, apes, and lemurs.

Although billed as a beginner reader's book, this does not strike me as an "easy reader" at all. The vocabulary used is incredibly difficult, featuring such words as arboreal, brachiating, prehensile, and proboscis. Names of unusual primates are of course included, but I think young readers will show more struggle with recognizing/pronouncing tarsiers, lorises, and galago, to name a few.

However, I think this book would work well for an adult reading aloud to a child. It is chock full of information and ends with a glossary and sources for additional information. But again I'd stressed that I wouldn't give this title to a beginning/struggling reader to try to work out on her or his own; they'd end up more frustrated than anything else.

The chosen title of Can You See a Chimpanzee? is reminiscent of Dr. Seuss's Say Can You Say but do not be mistaken, this book contains none of the imaginative whimsy of a Seuss story. Beyond the Cat in the Hat and the children from that book, the illustrations do not scream Seussian either. However, the language does follow a basic rhyming pattern that is evocative of Seuss's style. show less

A rather atypical childhood favourite of mine, this is a picture book following a day in the life of Big Joe who, as you might have guessed, drives a trailer truck. The story is fairly simple and contains the elements you would expect, from Joe collecting his truck from a service garage, hooking up his trailer, stopping for diesel fuel, and delivering his cargo (toys, of course, it's a kid's book!). While this book is older (it was published in 1974), I can see it still having appeal to any show more kids today who like big trucks. The illustrations of the trucks are very detailed (especially the cross-section on the title page) and I also appreciate how Big Joe seems to be such a pleasant and good-humoured man with a smile for everyone. show less

I thought this book was awesome. There were a lot of things I liked about it. The first thing is definitely the rhyming. Rhyming is a great way to get students interested in books. For example, one of the lines in the book was “Guinea pigs need to get lots of exercise, too. There are ramps to be climbed and tubes to run through.” Secondly, I thought the illustrations were great. They were very colorful and vibrate which will catch the reader’s eye. Finally, I liked the topic of the show more book. It teaches the reader about many types of pets such as cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and bunnies. The overall theme of this book is to teach the reader about different pets through a fun rhyming story. show less

This book was full of great information. FUN FACT: Did you know that when butterflies first come out of their cocoons their wings are really soft and they can't fly until their wings harden? I sure didn't know that before I read this book.

The rhyme is rather good, although a couple of sentences are a little awkward and it took me a little while to get back into the rhythm. Overall, very entertaining with delightful pictures. =)