Ami Rubinger

I dream of an elephant is written in a smart rhymed way. In each page the reader dreams of an elephant of different color, and the last word of the paragraph, that is always the color, is missing. Since the text seems singed it easily induces the kids to shout the last word. It's a very interactive book, and this is definitively the best thing about it. Elephants of eleven different colors are portrayed. The pictures are very simple and, of course, very colorful. Excellent choice for show more toddlers.

Age range: up to 4 years old

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Check out more children's book reviews in my Reviews in Chalk Blog! show less

This is a fun story for the little ones that allows them to learn colours as well as rhyming. Each two-page spread has an open-ended rhyme which the reader needs to guess on their own. There is an elephant that is doing something and the answer, which is not actually part of the text, is hinted at in the illustration. The book is full of beautiful and entertaining illustrations of elephants of various colours participating in different activities. This little concept book is a fun way to show more help small kids identify and say various colours.

This would make a great read aloud book for young children learning their colours whether with a parent or in a small group or kindergarten classroom.

Thanks to Netgalley for Abbeville Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. show less

(ARC was provided to read and review.)

The book was an instant hit with my son and turned out to be an excellent teaching device.
The pages just explode with vivid and bright colors and the illustrations of the elephants are funny and cheerful. With every page you turn, there's a different color and a rhyme consisting of two sentences. The last word in the second sentence is missing, which is the name for the colour. The children are challenged to come up with the right word and learn how to show more rhyme at the same time. What's more, the author doesn't just concentrate on the primary colors, there's black and puple and pink and more!
Obviously to find the right rhyming word for orange proved tricky and the author came up with a very clever solution. I just loved the idea.

The rhyme for my favourite color:
"Jumping and playing the whole morning through!
I dream of an elephant whose color is ........"

My son loved the catchy rhymes and the green elephant (who's a bit of a rockstar) was his favourite.

In my spare time I teach children my native language (German) from home and again, the book turned out to be fun and very helpful.
Once the children had come up with the correct English word, I let them try to find the German equivalent (which is sometimes quite straightforward - red = rot, or even better - pink = pink). After the right solution was discovered, we tried together to come up with a rhyming word in the German language.
That way, I was able to use the book not only for preschoolers and early readers, but also for kids up to 10. As you can see, the book is also an excellent tool for teaching languages and of course, it's a beautiful picture book.

I believe, the best way to learn and to remember what you've learned, is when you enjoy it and the education is fun. I found this book with it's creative challenges ideal and highly recommend it. show less

I really wanted to like this book, I love cats, I have a few myself. Usually children's books that have anything to do with animals are a delight. The positives, I liked that it helped show children how to rhyme. I just wish that on the pages where the word was left blank, when you turned the page it would say the word. This cat is small, this cat is.......TALL! So it still gives the child a chance to come up with the word, but gives it to them on the next page. Also, I wasn't thrilled with show more the illustrations. I think that is a big key in making a children's book work. The writing can be simple, but the illustrations need to pull it all together. show less