Andrea Pinnington

This is the first battery-operated push button sound book that I have unreservedly loved. Far from my usual scheming how to disable the electronics, I'll happily replace the battery when that time comes. It's a long lasting battery though; it's had a lot of use and shows no signs of quitting.

It's a sturdy, beautiful board book that is attractive to both parents and children. It fits nicely into a preschooler's backpack, along with a pair of toy binoculars, ready to head out into the show more backyard for adventures.

The book features beautiful full-page paintings of a dozen common North American birds, facing an informative paragraph about the bird. When the child presses the button with the picture matching the bird, it plays clear and unambiguous recordings of the bird songs. The child who received it for his fourth birthday has learned the names of all twelve birds (and with his language delays, that's a non-trivial accomplishment) and begged for the second volume "Woodland Bird Songs" -- recognizing that the picture on the back of a similar, but not identical book depicts another book that he can hope to own is also an accomplishment. Advice to adults: just buy the two books at once and save yourself a trip to the bookstore. show less

This book has its ups and its downs. I think it's pretty cool, because it introduces kids to diagrams and informational text. Each page talks about different types of your body including; hair, skin, lungs, heart, etc. It also briefly discusses things like healthy eating and hygiene. These are all great pieces of information for any child. The draw back to this particular book is that the layout on each page can be quite overwhelming. For example, the page on seeing is scattered with show more different information and there is no general structure to guide the reader. I suppose this book could be used to just flip through and not really need to guide the reader, but I prefer some kind of easy to read layout. I think each reader will have to decipher for themselves whether or not this book will work for them or not. show less

I reviewed the companion volume, Little Book of Backyard Bird Songs, in glowing terms and everything I said about that one is true of this as well. We now have two books with electronic push-button sounds that I love. I wouldn't have thought it possible.

And the small naturalist who listened to the books over and over can recognize a Great Horned Owl by its call: "Big owl. With ears." Oops, that's in the "backyard" book. You definitely need both of these wonderful books.

The children featured in the photographs are adorable (toothless, toothy, bespectacled, goofy, sweet and culturally diverse), but more intriguing are the cartoon depictions of the body's internal structures, superimposed over previously mentioned adorable children. The concept of ear canals, nasal passages and the like are easier to grasp when they can be seen in the familiar setting of a friendly face. Additionally, the very simple, large-print text makes this a book that one might even show more excerpt during storytime. The pages thick and sturdy. There's an index and a glossary.

My Body comes with a free digital companion book, that may or may not be useful to you, depending on your circumstances. The book is part of Scholastic's Discover More series.
Overall, it's fresh. It's new, and it's eye-catching. I like it.

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