Over, Under and Through

by Tana Hoban

Leap-frogging over a fire hydrant, ducking under "London Bridge," crawling through a pipe tunnel -- Tana Hoban's brilliant photographs of children transform these activities into a fascinating exploration of spatial concepts. There are twelve concepts in all -- and some surprising discoveries for the young child. As in Look Again! and Count and See, Tana Hoban has created an imaginative and provocative adventure into the many ways of seeing.

Genres: Photography, Mathematics, Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction, Juvenile

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1973

Reviews

[Victoria Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tana Hoban's 1973 children's book "Over, Under and Through and Other Spatial Concepts" is a ravishing piece of literature that perfectly matches the sparse text with her clever black and white photos. While I read through it, and looked at the images for the first time, I was struck by how prolific her photographic language was and how memorable.
Most of the photos have more than one aspect to them and they allowed me to examine the book a second time more judiciously. The fact that Hoban changed my viewpointt and helped hone my aesthetic eye with her selections made my experience with her book that much more profound and special.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

We began our story time on COLORS with a book filled with black and white photographs. "Is there color on this page?" I asked. "NO!" "What do you see? Do you see a girl jumping OVER a puddle?" "YES!" "What do you see on this page?" "Someone crawling". "Crawling THROUGH something?" "YES". And so forth. (We stopped after three or four double-page spreads).

*This kind of interaction with a book is called DIALOGIC READING.
It's FUN
It's EASY
It helps the child acquire essential pre-reading skills
Follow this link for more information: http://www.readingrockets.org/article...

[Ali Hembree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is appropriate for kids in the grades of kindergarten to 1st grade. When learning prepositional or positional words, this book will help the students learn the difference between them. The pictures in the book are very understandable for the students as well as the wording that is paired with it. After completing this book, the students can then apply their new understanding and do an activity in which they have to go over, under, or through certain objects in the classroom to find a "missing" item.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has few words....only for introducing all the spatial vocabulary. All the pictures are in black and white and are of children showing what over, under, and through, (and more) mean and what they look like. I liked this book because it gives the opportunity to be very interactive in teaching children.

[Jenni De la mare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for teaching verbs. I liked the illustrations that showed what each child was doing. It was a very simple book but it could easily be put in a classroom and be a resource for students as they do their own writing. It could also be used to integrate physical education and language arts.

[Christine Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Photographs demonstrate the spatial concepts expressed in twelve words such as around, across, between, against, and behind.

This is an older book and I continue to look for something better.


Subjects

Space perception

Vocabulary

Space perception -- Pictorial works.

[Madi Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It didn't really have a storyline, but it taught about going over, under and through. I liked the detailed pictures and thought they were interesting. I enjoyed flipping through and seeing the different scenes. I like how the students can learn something in a simple way.

[Juliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was pretty cool. It goes through different concepts like Over, Under and Through and shows you examples of what it means. It uses pictures to illustrate the meaning. Pretty clever.

[Rachel]

Photographs demonstrate the spatial concepts expressed in twelve words. Marvelous, really gets you thinking, great way to illustrate concepts

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good for preposition vocabulary.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute book & it has great pictures to help children understand the different terms.

[Mart R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoban utilizes black and white photographs, shot in 35mm. The clean lines of each picture provide the perfect viewing experience for a 2 yr old -4 yr old, or any nonverbal or preverbal child. The only words in the book are prepositions, which are commonly confused for new speakers, native or non-native. The kids featured in this picture book represent diverse backgrounds and communities, so your child or students will find representation even before they are at an individual reading level. There are plenty of critical thinking moments where you can ask your child "inside or outside?" and questions such as that in reference to the spatial pictures.

[Smurf · Rating 2 out of 5]

The black and white pictures made the book feel... boring. Seeing page after page of black and white pictures with no words did not make me interested in the book at all. But I read through it anyway. It establishes the concepts of over, under and through (as you might have guessed). But to be honest, I had to really stare at some of the pictures to figure out how it was supposed to be "over" or "under."

[Campbell Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are few words in this book but you get to see people interacting with the world. You get to place the type of word associated with each picture. Therefor giving you a challenge to apply the correct word or words to each picture.

This book does what it is supposed to but really does nothing else has no story nothing to have multiple read or any such things. I would use this book for application of vocab words and that is probably it.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoban books are classics - I love the (now) vintage feel of the photos.

[April Poulter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like the idea of this book; that is, I think it is a wonderful way to teach children what "over, under, through, against, etc." mean and look like, however, I didn't always agree with the pictures. Some of the photos better represented a different word, and others I couldn't even figure out what it was supposed to be representing. I would like this book a lot more if the pictures were more accurate.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This whole book is illustrated in black and white images. The pictures present situations for the reader to sort out, such as: over, under, through; on, in; around, across, between; beside, below; against, behind. Some have more than one concept. Enjoyable.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn simple concepts of placement. I wonder if today's kids will even recognize what a phone booth is.