A collection of 10 well-researched board books to introduce a wide range of learning topics and everyday objects to the little scholars. The topics included in the set are - ABC, Numbers, Shapes, Colours, Wild Animals, Farm Animals and Pets, Birds, Fruits, Vegetables and Transport.
I have read all of these One Thousand times. I am sure I will read them Ten Thousand More. The toddler loves these. She is obsessed. They are pretty fun! Five stars for all the many hours these books have kept the toddler entertained.
Question for the publisher though: what’s going on with these books, man? What’s the deal with the birds and the animals represented? Cos like it’s normal birds in the bird book, regular birds that we expect kids to know, birds that I encounter in my daily life in the wild and as an adulatory, and then, BAM. KINGFISHER? What? What’s a kingfisher? The first time I read through this with the kiddo, I was making all the bird noises to the best of my ability, and I just made some generic bird sound for that bc literally WHAT is a kingfisher and what’s it doing among the Commonly known birds: duck, goose, hen, rooster, etc.? Also, ALSO.. emu? What noise does an emu make? Maybe I should know this. Maybe this is the American education system failing me, but I really and truly do not know what sound an emu makes.
Same goes for the other animal books too. Was happily reading along, making animal noises then WAPOW. Camel. WHAT NOISE DOES A CAMEL MAKE??? I inquire of all of you, my fellow adults, WHAT NOISE. DOES A CAMEL MAKE? Can you honestly and confidently say, right now, without googling, you know what sound a camel makes? ARE YOU SURE? Go look it up. Google it. Listen to the sound a camel makes. It’s insane.
So like. What.
Camel and emu are objectively more normal animal selections than kingfisher, but I am forever floored by the inclusions in these books bc surely you know, you MUST KNOW, that we’re reading these and making the animal sounds? You must know this? And one would think, therefore, that you would include animals that we adults (parents and caregivers) know? That produce commonly heard sounds? Commonly KNOWN sounds? Or easily replicable sounds? Absolutely baffling.
Am I just meant to know these? Did I miss these particular lessons in animal sounds day at school? All this to say, I have been so continually humbled by these books. Even when I learn the sounds these animals make, it is a great and difficult task to actually successfully REPLICATE the sounds with any degree of similarity. One of the more challenging reads this year for this reason alone.
Meh. I get that baby books aren't particularly complex, but these just feel kind of slapped-together with random words and stock images, like no one put much thought into the order of words or what kids might be learning from them.
For instance, there's overlap between some of the books, so the same words appear in multiple books (some with the same pictures, some different); the "farm animals & pets" one frustrates me because the first pages juxtapose the male & female (bull & cow) but subsequent pages don't follow that pattern-- sometimes the animals are similar (duck & goose), sometimes they're not. It's all fine, but doesn't actually lend itself to language development in the way that a more structured book could.
Good set of picture books for kids 0-5 years. For kids of first two years the pages can be good as visual aids to recognize objects and animals. For older kids, these can be easy learning tools.
Since this Canadian product, contents depicted are appropriate for American continent users than other parts of the world. The authors could've used globally appealing generic contents instead. Therefore, 4 instead of 5 stars.
A pretty cool series of little board books. They include more detailed sets of words than some of the other word books Lily has, like the names of different kinds of birds, etc.
She didn't have any other books on shapes, so we read that one first. It was kind of weird that all of the shapes were two-dimensional except "cone," but overall, decent books.
I bought this set of books as a birthday present for my two year old granddaughter. She already lovess to have someone read to her and these are very sturdy little books made for a two year old to handle easily. She loves the colorful pictures as well.