The Secret Birthday Message

This book is incredibly interactive. It begins by Tim receiving a message that takes him on a treasure hunt! The clues are coded in shapes which help him find his birthday surprise! "The Secret Birthday Message" can help young learners work on their pattern recognition, shapes, and simply following instructions! They can also work on learning how to read maps and words that are commonly used to give directions. Eric Carle's illustrations are more than collages in this book. With cut outs and different shaped pages, the reader can have a lot of fun with this story.

The layout and design of this book are very intersting. The reader can actually take themselves along the path that the boy is going down on his secret journey to find his birthday present. The teaches children about symbols, signs, and maps, and the exciting adventures that arise when you make them and read them.

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 contains Eric Carle's wonderful illustrations and it is a pop-up book. It starts out with a boy trying to find his birthday gift with little clues he has been given. In the end he is supposed to go behind a rock and into a cave and open a secret door to find his new puppy!

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