Tarō Gomi

YAY! It's pouring down raining and I don't care. "Play All Day" just happened to arrive and now the kids are off having a ton of fun on the kitchen table and floor. They've punched out flowers and trees, princesses and monkeys, and they are putting on a finger puppet show. (Who knew princesses were acquainted with Dr. Who, and the monkeys, Donkey Kong.) The fold-up boxes became traps and houses....

After lunch they punched out some of the game pieces, playing the games they were meant to show more play, as well as a few they made up on their own.

THE SKINNY:::
"Play all Day" is a cool book. It has all sorts of shapes and characters and things you can punch out, so that the play potential is limited only by your child's age and imagination.

My two children are boy and girl, currently 8 and 10, so they don't need any assistance in either punching out the pieces or folding them into shapes or making them into finger puppets. Younger children will most likely need help to do this. And if they are young enough, they are going to need to be monitored so that they don't eat the pieces--lol.

Highly recommend this book as a great tool for small-motor exercise, and for hand-eye coordination. And for FUN, of course.

Pam T~
mom/blogger
booksforkids-reviews.com show less

A book that is beautiful in both the message and the illustrations, the young narrator shows gratitude with poetic expression for many thanks she learned from her friends.

She lists the following

Her cat who helped her to learn to walk
Her dog who taught her to jump
Her friend the monkey taught her to climb
Her friend the horse showed her how to run
Her friend the rooster taught her how to march
She learned to smell the flowers from her friend the butterfly
Her friend the rabbit taught her how to show more hide
Her friend the ant taught her how to explore the earth
Her friend the gorilla taught her how to kick
She learned to watch the night sky from the owl
She learned to read from her friends the books!
She learned to play from her friends at school
And she ends with stating she learned to love from friends like "you" -- the reader.

This lovely message made me think of the lessons I learned and how I obtained this knowledge.

I learned how to ride a bike from my father
I learned to read, and was encouraged to explore different types of books from my wonderful town librarian
I learned to laugh from my 25 year partner Will
I learned to be honest from friends who accepted my positive feedback
And, I learned to accept feedback from friends who encouraged me to change some behaviors that were necessary.
I learned to garden when enjoyed the feel of dirt in my hands
I learned to love deeply from my two daughters, and my four grandchildren
I learned to put down a book that seemed to go nowhere and did not hold my interest by reading books that did hold my interest.

And, I plan on continuing my journey of learning. show less

Ha ha, Emmett went right to the Chinese shelf at the library and we brought this one home and read it and I was like "what! the crocodile and the dentist don't wanna see each other (the dentist will poke the crocodile's cavities and the crocodile will chomp the dentist's arm) but 'I must!' 'There's nothing for it but to be brave.' 'Humble thanks for helping me.' and ganbatteing and shikata ga naiing and giriing all over the place and is China actually just like Japan and how did we not know show more this?" But then it turns out it's a Taro Gomi book translated into Chinese and then English and it all makes sense. This seems to have given Emmett more stomach for the task of going to the dentist and that is great, although the black hole limned in brown that represents the crocodile's cavity grosses me out 5% more than I think really necessary. show less

Talvez algumas pessoas possam achar esse livro só engraçado e inútil ou mais uma daquelas coisas bizarras que os japoneses fazem, mas para pais observadores e gente com formação em psicanálise, esse é um bom livro para mostrar para as crianças durante a fase anal e o fascínio que escatologias em geral as entretém nesse período. Aliás, há livros infantis sobre todas as coisas é muito importante mostrar para as crianças desde cedo que as respostas a suas curiosidades podem quase show more sempre passarem pela linguagem encontrada nos livros. show less