Basic Concepts Books - Page 3

Boynton's Greatest Hits: Volume II (The Going to Bed Book, Horns to Toes, Opposites, But Not the Hippopotamus)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The thinking's not fuzzy in these board books, but the animals certainly are. Sandra Boynton's familiar furry creatures introduce simple concepts in this bright collection of four books, replete with clever line drawings. In Horns and Toes and In Between, three horned monsters teach the parts of the body in rhyme: "...and we have a fuzzy TUMMY that we all like to pat / and a little BELLY BUTTON in the middle of that." The Going to Bed Book gets a Noah's Ark of animals organized for bed: "They hang their towels on the wall / and find pajamas, big and small." Opposites is just that: cute animals "high and low / fast and slow / heavy and light / day and night." In the rhyming reader But Not the Hippopotamus, a hippo finds himself on the outs as "a cat and two rats are trying on hats. / But not the hippopotamus. / A moose and a goose together have juice. / But not the hippopotamus." Rest assured the hippo finds love at the end. (Baby to preschool) --Claire Dederer

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? (Bright & Early Books(R))

Dr. Seuss

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 148 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

So Can You! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Mr. Brown Can Moo!
Can You?
Dr. Seuss

This is a book of sounds. It helps beginning readers learn to sound out words. When I was working on words with my oldest daughter, I soon found the my second daughter was also reading the words.
Before you know it the children have learned all the sounds along with Mr. Brown.
I highly recommend this book for young readers.

Jill Ammon Vanderwood, author
Through the Rug
Through The Rug: Follow That Dog (Through the Rug)

Really funny, the nieces (5 and 2.5) really get into it. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is a quick (rhyming) runthough of the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do, starting with the prosaic (moo, moo, choo choo) to the obscure and absurd (a "goldfish kiss" (pip!) and a "hippopotomus chewing gum" (grum, grum, grum), those are just two examples).

This book is short, which makes it great for early readers and for toddlers learning to talk, as well as for those hurry-through-bedtime days.

It's also really interactive, so it's terrific for group storytimes, especially with more active little kids who don't just want to sit down quietly. Every page ends with the narrator asking if you can make that noise too - and trust me, they can.

Editorial Review:

Illus. in full color. There isn't a sound Mr. Brown can't do, from a hippo's

gumchewing to a goldfish's kiss. The noisemakers are graphically illustrated

and the "sound effects" are printed in big lettering.

How to Draw 101 Animals (How to Draw)

Dan Green

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A good idea, but probably not for children. In fact, probably not a good idea for adults either. 3 out of 5 stars.
12 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Well, it started out good enough. Owl, pig, dog, crab: easy peasy, mac and cheesy! I was in a drawing frenzy by animal number 8, which was a lion. I could draw a lion with my toes, and even then I could draw a decent one with only my left pinkie toes using one of those useless tiny stub pencils that you find in public libraries.

So then I turned the page and there was animal number 9: The Fishhawk. I had never seen a Fishhawk before, but there are a lot of animals I haven't seen. So I learned how to draw this half-fish half-hawk thing and continued on to number 10, which was a Fishbook. Now, Fishhawk, I'll buy. But I don't see how something could be fish and book all at once. Furthermore, the Fishbook was pictured as if it was reading about itself in a book called "Fishbooks: A True Story".

Well, there's a lot about science and zoology that I don't know, and I can't argue if there's a book out there called "Fishbooks: A True Story". So I drew this and continued on to number 11, which was, literally, the "Elevenosaur". Easy enough, I guess, but numbers 12-18 were, in order, the Twelvopotamus, Thirteentelope, Fourteencat, Goatifteen, Sixteengoose, Seventelephant, and Monkeighteen. Each of these was an anthropomorphized version of the number itself, only with some sort of vague animal resemblance.

Nineteen was actually just directions for writing the number "19". Under the side notes, called "Quick Hints," it says, "First draw the number 1 and then the number 9! Now combine them!" Number 20 was finally a real animal. It was some guy named Dave who, technically, is a human animal. However, 21 was "Doubledave" and 23 was "Tripledave" and so on until 29, "Polydave." Each of these was exactly the same drawing as the previous one, only with one more Dave.

The thirties were actually animals 1-10 again, but now with hats or actually themselves in the form of hats. For example, "Cat in a Hat" and "Lionhat" and "Dave wearing a pig hat." Although, I admit, #35 Crabhat looks pretty cool, but I don't see how it's kid-appropriate to have him injuring Dave's head with instructions on how to realistically draw arterial spray.

At this point, I started to skip ahead. Some of the notable animals in the remainder of the book are listed below:

#40. Beezoriite. A bunch of human-like bees coming out of a nest that looks like, I kid you not, the US Capitol Building. Bees aren't animals, but at this point I'm not going to nitpick. They are, however, illustrated with a strange accuracy. The queen is apparently Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and several painstaking steps are included as how his "lipless smirk" should be precisely drawn.

#41. Jackelopemesopotamia. Described as "half jackrabbit, half antelope, half Mesopotamia".

#42. Dave, once again, but wearing a shirt that reads: "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything." I don't get it.

#52. The Syrripidon. The author took a full 80 pages to describe how to draw everything involving The Syrripidon. This apparently includes a pencil-like arm that the Syrripidon uses to draw other body parts onto itself. I supposed that explains why it has 4 beaks, 12 sets of legs, and something like 70 arm-like appendages that include a grappling hook, can opener, and "arm made of money". The final illustration is largely kid-inappropriate because the Syrripidon is pictured in a cartoon saying, in a vulgar and uncensored manner, how he cannot stop drawing things onto himself and that "no eraser can erase this pain."

As of the date of my writing this, Google cannot find one instance of the word "Syrripidon" on the internet.

#70. Cow. Strangely enough, these are well-written instructions on how to draw a pleasantly-cartoonish barnyard cow.

#72. Dogcow. Okay I see where this is going, all the way up to...

#79. Catdogcowcrabowlpigdavegooserabbit. As a "Quick Hint" the author instructs you that goose genes are the dominant phenotypes here, with rabbits coming in a close second.

#80-89. Multiple poses of the author's cat, Jinx, who is described as his "only friend now."

#90. A bottle of whiskey, but with arms. The bottle is drinking a smaller bottle of whiskey.

#98. The Authoridox. I believe this actually some sort of animal incarnation of the author. Included are several pages on how to draw everything from his "heart injured from the evil Exwifica", to his bloodshot eyes, and his "back, stabbed by the backstabbing best friend I once had." This is a very challenging animal to draw, which is probably why it's at the end of the book. I found the Authoridox's cirrhotic liver to be difficult to render, and I've never before attempted to illustrate the effects of a retrovirus-suppressed immune system.

#99. Daveasaurus Rex and Exwifica Regina. Well, this one really isn't child appropriate, and I don't see how the publisher failed to edit out this horrible, horrible image. There aren't even instructions on how to draw these "animals", but I don't see why you'd want to draw them anyway. Incidentally, Rex and Regina are the proper Latin words for king and queen, which tells me that a scary amount of thought went into this particular drawing.

Overall, I give this book a 3. I would have rated it lower, but it's difficult to fault a thorough, 900-page children's book for being incomplete. I would have rated it higher if not for giving me nightmares.

First the Egg (Caldecott Honor Book and Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book (Awards))

Laura Vaccaro Seeger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A concept journey: egg or chicken? chicken or egg? 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 31 people found this review helpful.

Which came first--the chicken or the egg? Finally, someone is here to tell us. But the answer later.

"First the egg," written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, is a Caldecott honor winner for 2008 and an honor book for the Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Award. What makes it special? Both the artwork and the story, or actually, in this case, concepts that lead from one transformation to the next. Two previous clever winners are Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book) by David Wiesner and Black and White, an earlier Caldecott by David Macauley.

I took this book from a display in our bi-annual Book Fair. I read it in just one minute. Then reread it. And reread it. Every time I pick up this seemingly simple book, I see something else I missed. Even the covers are part of the story. This book is more than clever--it is brilliant, as in illuminating.

Listen, here is the story. Get comfortable and let me read it to you:

First the EGG
then the CHICKEN
First the TADPOLE
then the FROG
First the SEED
then the FLOWER
First the CATERPILLAR
then the BUTTERFLY
First the WORD
then the STORY
First the PAINT
then the PICTURE, First the CHICKEN
then the EGG!

Well? Exactly! Without the bold colors and almost in-your-face images in the background, the words are fine, but...? A Caldecott Award is given to the most distinguished picture book of the year. Please look at the cover image with this review. That gives an idea of the power of the colors and paint technique, which is impasto on canvas, providing two layers of texture. That is what this book has--texture: layers of texture in the art and the concepts.

Art? A creative, bold enterprise that can make the chicken or the egg first. Think it, do it. Create. That is exactly what Ms Seeger did. She created a bold, creative way to examine this age-old riddle.

"First the egg" is highly recommended, not only for children, who will adore it, but also for adults, who will be reminded of the grandeur of creation in all its many forms. Great children's books belong in the collection of adults as well as in children's.

Editorial Review:

WHICH CAME FIRST?  The chicken or the egg?  Simple die-cuts magically present transformation-- from seed to flower, tadpole to frog, caterpillar to butterfly. The acclaimed author of  Black? White! Day? Night! and Lemons Are Not Red gives an entirely fresh and  memorable presentation to the concepts of transformation and creatiity.  Seed becomes flower, paint becomes picture, word becomes story--and the commonplace becomes extraordinary as children look through and turn the pages of this novel and winning book.

10 Fat Turkeys

Tony Johnston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Silly & Fun! 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

If you're looking for a serious book about Thanksgiving, then 10 Fat Turkeys is not the book for you. This book is about ten fat turkeys walking along a fence, when one by one they fall, break the fence, and perch on a tree instead. It's funny, and intended to appeal to the very young, or young at heart. The illustrations are bright, and bold, and will appeal to young children say 1 to 5-years. My son laughs when I read this book, and now at five he's starting to read it to himself.

10 Fat Turkey's mimics the pattern in Melanie Gerth's, Ten Little Ladybugs, although Gerth's book is sweet, this work is just plain silly.

10 fat turkeys fooling on a fence.
"Looky!" says a silly turkey, swinging from a vine.
GOBBLE GOBBLE WIBBLE WOBBLE whoops! Now there are...9.

It's a lesson in simple subtraction, and one we enjoy reading after Halloween. It's not a Thanksgiving book per se, there is no mention of the holiday, or even the season. It just a fun, nonsense book for little tykes.

Editorial Review:

"Looky!" says a silly turkey swinging from a vine. Gobble gobble wibble wobble.Whoops! Now there are nine.Girls and boys will gobble up this hilarious story about ten goofy turkeys and their silly antics: swinging from a vine, strutting on a boar, doing a noodle dance, and more. Veteran author Tony Johnston has written a joyful text, which first-time illustrator Richard Deas brings to life as wild and wacky fun!

Boynton's Greatest Hits: Volume 1 (Boynton, Sandra. Boynton Board Books.)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great board books 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Boynton's books were always some of my absolute favorite board books to read to my son (who is now 5) and he really enjoyed them as well. I especially liked Blue Hat, Green Hat and Doggies from this collection. As he got older, I started reading more regular books to him and one day he found his old board books in a box and eagerly went through Blue Hat, Green Hat. He always loved the "oops" :) He never seemed too fond of the A to Z book - there seemed to be a pretty short window for him on when I could read him alphabet books and he liked the Apple Car book better. These books are just the right length to read to a toddler and keep them entertained while giving them just a little bit of education.

These are my favorite books to read to my girls 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My girls are 5 and 3 and they love Sandra's books. I can't wait to get the whole collection. We have barnyard dance and snuggle puppy. My kids know every word and read/sing along the story with me.

Editorial Review:

The ultimate set for Boynton fans, here are four of her seriously silly bestselling board books in their own sturdy boxed set. Full-color illustrations.

Toes, Ears, & Nose! A Lift-the-Flap Book

Marion Dane Bauer, Karen Katz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 90 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Perfect for YOUR little ones! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Five month old grandson loves these little books! Great way to spend time with your little ones - reading a great little book just for him/her. Sturdy, easy to clean and the perfect size for little hands & fingers. Can't go wrong with these little books for babyshower gifts or birthday gifts for little ones!

Another fun flap book. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

We are on child #2 with this book and both of my kids have requested it over and over and over and over. My youngest, 19 months, is 'reading' it to us. It has even helped him learn a few body parts!

It is easy to understand, fun for the babies and easily read by my other kid. What could be better? Well, maybe a space age polymer that keeps the flaps on when an overzealous toddler continues to try and wrestle them off.

My daughter's favorite book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The summary: This book is a great combination of thick board pages, big cartoon people, bold colors and vivid images, and interesting interactive flaps. It's great for holding a babies attention and getting them engaged.
My daughter is 6 months old, and this has been her favorite book since she was 4 months (which is a really long time in baby age ). At first, she just watched me lift the flaps and her eyes would get wide. It was the only book that retained her attention. Now that she's a little older, she loves to try to open and close the flaps herself. Also, the colors are vivid and the pictures are interesting and bold, so she can stare at one page for several minutes and remain interested.
I've bought several of the other books by the same author that are the same theme: Where is baby's belly button; where is baby's mommy; Daddy and me. She likes all of them, but this is her favorite. Every page has a big picture of a child, which seems to be part of the tremendous appeal. And I like it too, so I don't mind reading it 4,000 times! :-)

Editorial Review:

Inside my boots I've got toes,

and beneath my scarf is a...

Baby is bundled in a mountain of clothes! Peek under the flaps of clothing to find out what's underneath, and play this fun peekaboo book again and again!

Your Baby Can Read!: 1

Robert Titzer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

bored toddler,not going to subject infant to tv 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 41 people found this review helpful.

toddler bored. barely watches tv yet which i think is a good thing and as per AAP recommendations. Most girls are smarter than boys, talk and read earlier. My sister and I read and talked super early without any assistance and we were offered to skip two grades. So I cant say Im so impressed by Titzers daughter. IN addition, he is a PhD so he probably has good genes and pushed his daughter which would go a longer way towards explaining her being academic. I would be interested to see if she or any other of titzer early readers turn out to be genius in any way. I think parents need to stop being so neurotic. How many kids who dont have learning disabilities and whose parents are involved in their education dont learn to read well? pretty much none. more important in my opinion to inculcate reading as entertainment and have one on one with your child. I guess I think very young kids shouldnt be in front of tv's but rather with their parents and interacting with objects in the world. I think most "genius" babies turn out ordinary and that a child of an academic goes to college and cares about school is not exactly a shocker to me. Knowing that many geniuses were tagged as retarded early in life is a refutation that you have this "window" that if you miss, youll never have it back. Children are learning about the world unless you keep them in a cage. Ive seen kids with neglectful parents talking up a storm early and kids with neurotic academic parents not saying a word till 3.

That's Not My Puppy: Its Coat Is Too Hairy (Usborne Touchy Feely)

Fiona Watt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Well done! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

That's Not My Puppy: Its Coat Is Too Hairy is short and sweet on length, but wonderfully entertaining with textures. This is a great, sturdy board book that very little readers will enjoy multiple times.

And, when you've explored all you want about the dogs, you can always discuss that cute little mouse who seems to appear on every single page!

Cute, educational, and very, very entertaining. This is a must for your toddler's library.

A Touching Book 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is another winner in this board book series, written by the "touchy-feely" team of Watt, Fiona, and Usborne. It's essentially a monologue by an unseen narrator (perhaps a young toddler like the book's audience),who notes why various breeds of dogs are NOT his or her own.

The illustarions are bright primary colors, against similar but contrasting backgrounds. Embedded within the triple-thick board book pages is some texture-rich material described in the book. These attributes enable the narrator to label and categorize the various dogs, and to deduce that the pictured dog is NOT "my puppy."

Ultimately, after you and your young charge touch the materials, enjoy the bright volotd and varying breeds, and delight in the repetitive; "that's not my puppy," refrain, the tenacious reader/listener will celebrate the ultimate discovery of the beloved dog. A nice little vocabulary buikder and an all-around suinpke but fun boatd book that imaginative adults can enahnce with a nicely dramatic reading.

Editorial Review:

-- Invite babies and toddlers to touch and feel a variety of exciting textures, helping develop both sensory and language awareness -- These sturdy board books contain bright and simple illustrations that add to the "hands-on" fun

From Head to Toe Big Book

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good "move around" type of story 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In this book, various animals and children move parts of their body and encourage other children to do so.

Eric Carle is truly a master of this kind of text. Each spread follows the same repetitive structure - "I'm a $ANIMAL and I can $VERB my $BODYPART - can you? I can do it!" - which makes it very suitable both for young children learning to speak and older children figuring out how to read.

The only part I don't like is at the end, when the little boy says to his parrot (in a neat turnaround) "I am I, and I can wiggle my toe". It doesn't sound very idiomatic to me - I would say, in normal speech "I am me", or perhaps (in the form followed in the rest of the book) "I am a child" or "I am a person" or "I am a human".

This book is also, obviously good to encourage kids to move during a rainy-day storytime, or to let them move if they always are fidgeting during storytime.

Editorial Review:

Are you ready?
Here we go!
Move yourself
From Head to Toe

I can do it! That's what kids will say when they wiggle, stomp, thump, and bend across the pages of this book. Laughter and squeals of delight will abound as boys and girls (and their elders, too!) participate in the action.