Joe Mathieu

This informative book follows Big Joe during a typical day as a tractor trailer driver. I like this book for a couple of reasons, but found it a bit dated. To start, the story is believable and relates to any child that is interested in trucks. The first two full pages of the book contain a detailed cut-away drawing of the truck with about thirty labels. I also like how the illustrations completely fill the pages, but incorporate light or white areas for the text. When Big Joe goes to the show more service garage, the text is conveniently placed in the bright bay door opening. The book is gives a good sense of how trucks operate, but is dated. An example of this is when the dispatcher gives Big Joe maps to help him navigate. In reality, he'd probably be using GPS. 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. =)

This book lives in that gray area between fiction and nonfiction. The Cat in the Hat tells young readers all about the various ways animals camouflage or otherwise adapt to either hide from predators or sneak up on prey.

Although billed as a beginner reader's book, this does not strike me as an "easy reader" for new or struggling readers. The vocabulary can be a bit tricky, with words used like disruptive, concealed, and mimic. However, these are all words that are needed to describe the show more different types of adaptations, so it is kind of hard to avoid using them in this book.

And, this book is chock full of information, including information about animals well known by small children, like tigers and zebras, as well as lesser known animals, such as stoats and bitterns. Again though, these latter ones will make for tricky reading for beginners. I think this book would work best with an adult reading aloud to a child; I could see it being useful in a school setting as well as a home one.

The book ends with an illustration spread that asks children to find some hidden animals, before wrapping up with a glossary and sources for additional information. Speaking of illustrations, beyond featuring the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1/Thing 2, the illustrations are not really that much in Seuss's style. However, the language does follow a basic rhyming pattern that is evocative of Seuss's text, although some of the rhymes are a bit forced. show less

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