Patrick Merrell

Cute little book with fun facts about coffee interspersed with puzzles. I hardly ever drink the stuff, so the rapture was lost on me.

ISBN 0785331530 - Beginner phonics books are out there by the thousands, and it's hard to say much bad about anything that interests a child in reading, especially for someone like me - I love books and think everyone should be infected early. It will be rare for me to not see these types of books positively; this one, with the cut-outs on the pages, certainly deserves props.

On brightly colored, sturdy board book pages, the text is very simple, to introduce beginning readers to words that show more rhyme with bug. The cut-out of each page is a little larger than the one before, to show the words added on that page. For example, "A bug", the cut-out shows a bug; "A bug gets a hug", the cut-out has been enlarged to show the same bug getting a hug. It's a very simple novelty that sets this book just a little apart from other phonics books.

Illustrator Patrick Merrell really only had to do one illustration, which is shown in increments by the cut-outs, but I still think he earned some credit there. Not only does the illustration work fantastically with the cut-outs, but it is cute, cute, cute. I don't know if this book is part of a series, but I can hope!

- AnnaLovesBooks show less

I picked this up at an airport to get me through an Anchorage to Seattle flight, and it was good for that. The puzzles were relatively easy, but then flying makes me brain dead, so I felt evenly matched for them. And I love coffee, so the tidbits and nature of the puzzles made it a bit more fun. And it slips easily into my pocket. If you like more complicated puzzles, try another book, but if you are trying to do them half asleep, or at inopportune times, this may be the book for you.

Quick fill in the blank puzzles with clever clues.