The Secret Birthday Message

This one was interesting. It was different from the rest of his books I've read. This one told a story instead of repeating a couple lines. It has the classic illistrations and the simple text but there was more here than in the other books. I though this book used shapes perfectly. There was a letter at the beginning that used shapes instead of the shape word. Then through out the book the shaped were shown by page shape and a real life version of the shape. I really liked this one.

Maybe Carle's most masterfully laid out book of all. This makes a kid feel like he/she is inside the book, following the clues to the secret birthday message. So simple and brilliant.

I thought that this book was so cute and I really liked it. I liked the way that the illustrator decided to not make all of the pages simple rectangles and they all had their own unique shape. Another thing that I liked was the writing and how the secret message note had shapes in it to engage the reader more. I also liked the illustrations and how bright and playful they were. I think that the big idea is that if you follow the rules you can be rewarded for being good.

The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle is a multifaceted concept book combining spatial and directional concepts, following instructions, pattern recognition, matching shapes, and map reading for beginner readers. Tim receives a letter with a secret message the night before his birthday. Upon reading it, he discovers it is a coded map that will lead him to his birthday present. The adventure begins when the reader sees Tim’s letter, turns the page and begins to decode it. The pages are cutout shapes that match those in the letter and lead to gift in the end. The text is brief, found on the left side of the page on an all white background, with the symbol above the decoding sentence. On the right, the symbol take a picture form with show more true Carle style, colorful and brush stroke in design. The surprise at the end is Tim’s present, a puppy…every child’s wish for a birthday present. The final page challenges the reader to find his way back, with a full two-page view of the route Tim takes to find his birthday surprise. This is an excellent book for beginner readers. show less

In this story, Tim receives a message in code telling him where to find his birthday present. The code uses different shapes--semi-circle, oval, circle, rectangle and so on. As Tim follows the clues, each page as a full page cut out illustration. The cut out pages offer a nice tactile reinforcement of shapes. The secret code is fun and makes the book especially alluring. The narrative enhances, rather than distracts, from the shape concepts. The illustrations are beautiful and, combined with the narrative, appealing to children. This would not be a good choice for an independent reader for reinforcing shape names, since they are illustrated, rather than named, but older readers will enjoy the story. This book is included on The Story show more Place Preschool Library Website. It is appropriate for ages 3 to 6. show less

This is a great yet different book! The character Tim goes on a treasure hunt through a cave where he comes across a note that is written with symbols. The lack of words and insertion of symbols get the reader involved and interactive with the story as they have to guess what the symbol means in order to read the message and help Tim on his adventure!

Eric Carle begins this story by introducing us to the character named Tim who is reading a message regarding his birthday. We see Tim reading a birthday message in Code, which we soon unlock this code as we flip through each page. Each page is designed to be a symbol in the coded message we were introduced to in the beginning. This is a fun interactive book that will keep young readers excited as they flip through each page. As we journey through the pages to fin out what Tims birthday message is leading him to, towards the end we find out it's a cute little puppy. The book ends with an illustration of a map showing the adventure we took to get to Tim's birthday gift.