Find The Puppy & Bear in the Square

LittleMiss' mama was very excited that I have chosen to make her a guest blogger on the site. And so she emailed me today with some of LittleMiss' current favorites:

FIND THE PUPPY by Phil Roxbee Cox and Stephen Cartwright

I believe that she is particularly fond of this book because the puppy in the illustrations looks like her own puppy, Pilgrim. She likes that it isn't too "wordy" because really it is all about the pictures and short sentences that rhyme. She also seems to follow my finger when I point to the puppy on each page. She seems particularly fond of the page with the red background when puppy makes a puddle by spilling a bucket of soapy water.

BEAR IN THE SQUARE by Stella Blackstone and illustrated by Debbie Harter.

The colors are very very vibrant. She was so impressed with the bold visuals that she did not even realize that the book is teaching her to count. (Her mother is trying not to offer her own opinions about math being boring)





A brief aside: I have begun to be concerned that I am starting a bad habit by reading to her on her changing table. Is this how bathroom reading begins?

My Little Miracle

Title: My Little Miracle
Author: J Beck & J. Croyden
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2007

My Little Miracle is a sweet board book. It has gentle, flowing, rhythmic text alongside some very cute photographs. There are photographs of babies, toddlers, and some nature shots as well. I really loved the photography. It was just well done. Very interesting. And I think people of all ages can ooh and aah over the cute and adorable babies.

Here is a sample of the text:

Welcome to the world of smiles and hugs...when tucked into bed or cuddled in rugs.
Enjoy warm sunshine and feel soft rain. Look for a rainbow when the sun shines again...

But my favorite part of the text:

Let stories and books bring the magic of words...

And of course there is a photograph of a parent reading to a child and pointing to each word as its read. (Or I suppose the parent could be pointing to a picture. The point is that it's an interactive process.)

Overall, I enjoyed this one a great deal. Which leads us to Little Miss's response.

(Written by her mama of course)

Little Miss found this book to be quite comforting. She appeared to respond most happily to the words as they were read to her. This is most likely because her mother found the book to be quite precious and thus read the words with a very loving voice that cracked a bit as she got teary eyed.



And to give credit where credit is due, the photos are by her mama presumably...and the beautiful, beautiful quilt is by MY mom :)

Eric Carle's Animal Sounds

Carle, Eric. 2007. My Very First Book of Animal Sounds.

Eric Carle has many board books coming out this year. And he has many books in print at any given time. The book's pages are in two halves. A top half that features a picture of an animal. And the bottom half that features the word representing the sound the animal makes. It's a mix and match book. You could have a cat saying "squeak" or "quack" or you could make him say the proper "meow."



List of animals:

cat
rooster
dog
duck
cow
mouse
lion
owl
chicks
sheep

List of sounds:

squeak
roar
meow
moo
hoot
quack
peep
crow
baa
bark

Knowing that babies are the only judges that matter. I put this book to the test. Here is what SugarCookie, who is roughly ten months, thought. He really seemed to like looking at the pictures. It was really fun to watch his face light up with a big smile. He seemed to especially like the cow, dog, and cat. He loved to "pat" or "pet" the pictures. He liked turning the pages. And he seemed to like that there were more pages to turn. He'd go back and forth between the pictures. Of course he was way too little to understand that the bottom pages, the words, meant anything or correlated with sounds. And I wasn't about to demonstrate since this book activity was during church. But he thought the book tasted good as well. Overall, it kept him entertained and still for a good bit of time. His other entertainment seemed to be playing with the velcro on his shoes. He would take turns between those two activities. That and munching on Gerber fruit puffs cereal. But overall he was a very happy baby.

Peek-a-Zoo

Little Scholastic is a new line by Scholastic books. You can read all about it on their official site:
http://www.scholastic.com/littlescholastic/

Many of these new titles were released on July 1, 2007. I haven't received all of the titles yet, though I have requested them from Scholastic so they should be on their way soon, but based on the one title I have received, I am very excited.

Little Scholastic books are designed for babies age 0 to 3. And as the back of the book proclaims it is a title that will "grow" with your child.

Babies: Touch the textures. Point to the images.
1-2: Look at the pictures and text. Listen and repeat the words.
2-3: Learn the concepts. Connect the meaning of the words and images.

I encourage parents to go to their site because it really is quite a resource. I especially recommend reading the article, "Why Babies Need Books" by Kate Jack. Another great article is "Quick Click: Integrating Reading Into Everyday Life for Birth to Age 2." So explore and learn...and then read, read, read!

My thoughts on Peek-a-Zoo:

I liked the brightness of the colors. I thought they were very bold, very striking. There are some great contrasts going on. There were also plenty of textures for babies to touch and feel. (rough, bumpy, soft, furry, smooth, squishy, etc.) The cut-outs were very fun. And the mirror, well, I'll let SugarCookie do the talking there! So this book had a lot to offer visually and texturally.



SugarCookie's thoughts on Peek-a-Zoo:

SugarCookie is ten months old. While he had no problems maneuvering the pages of Eric Carle's My Very First Book of Animal Sounds, he found Peek-A-Zoo to be a bit more tricky. He needed help to turn the pages. He liked to try to turn the pages. But he would try to turn the pages by grabbing the cut-outs on the inside of the book. Which sometimes worked, most times didn't. But fortunately, he had help turning the pages and was able to 'read' the whole book. Again, I wasn't concerned with the reading aspect. It was more of watching to see how we responded to the pictures and textures. He did like to point at the pictures. And he did discover the differences between the textures. But what SugarCookie loved most of all was playing with the mirror on one of the pages. Thanks to the cut-outs, this mirror was available to see on two of the pages. He liked watching himself. He liked making faces. But he really, really liked going nose to nose and mouth to mouth. I don't know if he was trying to kiss himself or what. (I just think that's something kids like to do universally...to play with noses and mouths on mirrors.) But I do know this: he loved it. SugarCookie didn't find this book tasty. Surprisingly enough, he didn't even try once to put the corners of the book in his mouth. I guess he was having too much fun looking and feeling to give it the taste test. Regardless, I think it's a safe bet to assume that he enjoyed his Sunday morning visit with Peek-a-Zoo.



Looking for more board books review, today our other baby reviewer, LittleMiss, reviewed two books.

Two Reviews By LittleMiss

Little Miss Learns Her Shapes

Shape is one of the new titles published by Little Scholastic. What is Little Scholastic? Little Scholastic is a new line by Scholastic books. You can read all about it on their official site:
http://www.scholastic.com/littlescholastic/

Many of these new titles were released on July 1, 2007. I haven't received all of the titles yet, though I have requested them from Scholastic so they should be on their way soon, but based on the titles I have received, I am very excited.

Little Scholastic books are designed for babies age 0 to 3. And as the back of the book proclaims it is a title that will "grow" with your child.

Babies: Touch the textures. Point to the images.
1-2: Look at the pictures and text. Listen and repeat the words.
2-3: Learn the concepts. Connect the meaning of the words and images.

I encourage parents to go to their site because it really is quite a resource. I especially recommend reading the article, "Why Babies Need Books" by Kate Jack. Another great article is "Quick Click: Integrating Reading Into Everyday Life for Birth to Age 2." So explore and learn...and then read, read, read!

What I liked about Shape...


I loved the visual and textual components of Shape. The colors were bright and bold. There was great contrast in the illustrations. And the textures were diverse: bumpy, smooth, rough, scratchy, sparkly, etc. The text was simple with only one to four words per page.

For example, the shape on page one was a circle. There was a picture of a car with a smiley face showing through the window. The car has black and white spiral tires. And the car was against a green background. The only words on the page were the words "circle" and "car." The next page, page two, showed a black circle--bumpy texture--against a white background. It simply said "Touch this!" and "Bumpy circle."



LittleMiss's mama writes:

LittleMiss appreciated the simplicity of the book. She stared at the brightly colored pages and her mother ran her hands across the textured shapes. There was not much text so her mother "ad-libbed" and described the items on each page. This book was also a nice size for her.

I think her smile says it all:

Our two baby reviewers

I plan to be reviewing a lot of baby books--board books--in the upcoming months and years with some very special help along the way. Although they can't talk, I speak baby quite well and will be helping them write some well-thought-out reviews. Of course, I'll be adding in my own opinions too! (So if you're a publisher of board books, feel free to contact me about sending review copies.)

Meet SugarCookie:



SugarCookie has already written one review, Eric Carle's My Very First Animal Sounds.

And introducing LittleMiss:


LittleMiss hasn't written anything yet. But I'm sure as she gets a little bit older...she'll be contributing plenty. She already has a way of letting her opinions show.