I Like Vegetables

I Like Vegetables. Lorena Siminovich. 2011. Candlewick Press. 10 pages.

Above
Below
Carrots


Inside
Outside
Peas

I Like Vegetables is one of four titles available in Lorena Siminovich's Petit Collage series published by Candlewick. Previous titles include: I Like Toys (a concept board book about shapes), I Like Fruit (a concept board book about colors), and I Like Bugs (a concept board book about counting to five). And I must admit it is one of the best in the series. I thought it was really clever to use vegetables to show opposites! That harvest time is a great time to learn about opposites. The opposites included in the book are: above/below, inside/outside, tall/short, big/little, and empty/full.

It is a touch-and-feel book. And I enjoyed those elements on these pages. I especially liked the carrots and the peas! Well, for that matter I loved the corn too! If I'm being honest, I loved it all! I just *wish* that a touch-and-feel book would try a little harder to get the pumpkin right. Because I am relatively sure that most pumpkins do not feel velvet-like.

It is easy to recommend this one, to recommend the whole series! I just love the art and design of these!!!

© 2011 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Elephant Elephant: A Book of Opposites

Pittau & Gervais. 1999/2001. Elephant Elephant: A book of opposites.

Originally published in France in 1999, the book was translated into English and published in 2001. It is a strange little book of opposites. Some of the pairs work well. Really well. Others are just very very strange. A fact that didn't quite make sense until I got to the end and discovered that this is a French book. The French sense of humor doesn't necessarily translate perfectly for American audiences. (Some of the pairs seem almost twisted or warped. In particular they're "plugged" and "unplugged" illustrations.)

You've got your typical opposite pairings (big/small, wide/narrow, start/finish, long/short, top/bottom, etc.) alongside some more unusual ones (furry/feathered, angular/curvy, plains/mountain, plugged/unplugged, smart/stupid, broken/repaired, lit/extinguished, etc.). Some of the pairs were a bit disturbing. The illustration of an elephant on fire was just twisted, in my opinion.

Some wit was involved. I must admit to smirking a bit at the illustrations of the smart/stupid elephants...seeing as there were no differences to distinguish the two.

But generally speaking, this isn't necessarily the best choice of opposites to put in the hands of a small child or young reader. I know I would have been disturbed by several of the ill

© Becky Laney of Young Readers