Tad Carpenter

You say, “Fun?” I say, “A hoot!”

The reason I got these two board-like books for review was obvious when I found my six-year-old reading them aloud to my five-month-old. That was exactly what I hoped would happen when I left them sitting out. The reading level is much too easy for my six-year-old but she was clearly feeling helpful by entertaining her brother (who didn’t really care too much about the books as he was busily stuffing something else in his face) and it increased her show more self-confidence in her newly acquired reading skills.

You say, “Ages 0-3?” I say, “Neigh!”

The books are geared towards kids ages 0-3 (supposedly ideal for my six month old) but I have some worries they would not withstand the mistreatment of the extremely young, especially as the pages are not as thick as typical boardbooks. They are more like super glossy card-stock-thickness pages. (Of course I’ve seen my share of bitten, drool-soaked board books that have been attacked by teething babies so they are not impervious to damage either.) The lift-the-flaps are fun and entertaining but are vulnerable to unintended bends and folds that the pre-literate set tend to inflict on them. Not to mention, they lift and flap in a variety of directions so it can be frustrating to little ones who expect them to go only one direction. Older siblings do not seem to have much difficulty with the changing flaps. The glossiness is good for wiping off drool and other messes though! And the colors and illustrations are cheerfully appropriate and engaging for this age. I especially love the call-and-response style which encourages interaction and interest in early reading.

You say, “Stop.” I say, “Go… read!” show less

Every odd page of this delightful flip book gives a brief description of an animal and its appearance and behavior or habitat. On the opposing even page, there is a flap which shows an almost entirely hidden drawing of that animal. When you open the flap, the animal and its name are revealed. This is a board book which I read aloud to my students. Because we had already begun our unit about polar animals, they were familiar with all of the animals in this book and were able to guess who was show more "hiding" behind each flap. The reindeer tripped them up, they called caribou, but that just opened up a great discussion about the similarities and differences of the two hoofed, antlered animals. And, I was SOOOOOOO impressed with my kindergartners, because on the final page, AFTER we had met the polar bear, there is a penguin-ish bird. Of course penguins don't live in the arctic, and several of them caught the author's mistake, having assumed it was a penguin. It may have been better if it is indeed a bird of the north, to introduce it in the book to explain that it is not a penguin, or to leave it out. But that is a very small, small, critique of an excellent, fun, engaging non-fiction book about animals that live in the cold. show less

You say, “Fun?” I say, “A hoot!”

The reason I got these two board-like books for review was obvious when I found my six-year-old reading them aloud to my five-month-old. That was exactly what I hoped would happen when I left them sitting out. The reading level is much too easy for my six-year-old but she was clearly feeling helpful by entertaining her brother (who didn’t really care too much about the books as he was busily stuffing something else in his face) and it increased her show more self-confidence in her newly acquired reading skills.

You say, “Ages 0-3?” I say, “Neigh!”

The books are geared towards kids ages 0-3 (supposedly ideal for my six month old) but I have some worries they would not withstand the mistreatment of the extremely young, especially as the pages are not as thick as typical boardbooks. They are more like super glossy card-stock-thickness pages. (Of course I’ve seen my share of bitten, drool-soaked board books that have been attacked by teething babies so they are not impervious to damage either.) The lift-the-flaps are fun and entertaining but are vulnerable to unintended bends and folds that the pre-literate set tend to inflict on them. Not to mention, they lift and flap in a variety of directions so it can be frustrating to little ones who expect them to go only one direction. Older siblings do not seem to have much difficulty with the changing flaps. The glossiness is good for wiping off drool and other messes though! And the colors and illustrations are cheerfully appropriate and engaging for this age. I especially love the call-and-response style which encourages interaction and interest in early reading.

You say, “Stop.” I say, “Go… read!” show less

This is a nice little boardbook that takes a look at FEELINGS and what facial features and actions are associated with them.

For example:

Happy - Smile
Grumpy - Frown
Excited - Hurray

So you can see that sometimes the focus is on 'reading' faces, and sometimes on actions that might accompany a mood or event. ("I say hurt" is accompanied by 'OUCH!")

This gives adults a chance to turn the discussion with little ones in different directions. Like, we say 'ouch' when we get hurt too, don't we. What show more else do we sometimes do?...

The design for this book is a little different. Instead of lifting a flap you lift an entire page. AND the page can swing out in different directions -- up, down, sideways.

Heavily plasticized, these pages should hold up to drool. It's not clear to me at this point how they will hold up to heavy toddler use. show less