A is for Salad

A is for Salad by Mike Lester
All ages

I think this book would be confusing for little kids, especially ones who are just getting comfortable with the alphabet. This book goes through the alphabet from A to Z saying phrases like “A is for salad,” and “B is for Viking.” Clearly, to any good reader they know that these are not the case. The entire book says these confusing and untrue sayings. The kick to this book is that there is a picture which each letter that signifies the correct object starting with that letter. So, when it says “A is for salad” there is an alligator eating a salad and then for “B is for Viking” there is a picture of a beaver dressed up as a Viking. This book looks like it should be designed for very beginning readers because of the amount of words on each page, however I strongly believe they would be very confused by sentences.

How I Became a Pirate

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and David Shannon

Age 3-7

This book uses children’s imagination to its fullest. It is a great book for taking children into a dream world. On the inside cover written by the librarians it says the book is suitable for ages three to seven years old. Personally, I would not suggest this book to kids lower than five years old. I don’t think they would get it because there are some harder words for example: battening, swabbing, and moat. I don’t think a three and four year old would know what any of these words are. Also, some of the pictures are kind of scary especially for a three year old.

The pictures weren’t perfect, which I liked, for example some pictures weren’t colored in all of the way and some edges were kind of jagged so it looked as if someone had drawn right on to the page. I liked the imperfections of the illustrations because it gives the realistic idea to kids that their art doesn’t have to be perfect either. I enjoyed the detail of the pictures which made the pages interesting to look at. I thought the use of space on the pages worked well. There was one page that had pirates lining the edges as a border so even the top was lined; the pirates were just upside down.

I liked how if the pirates all said something as a group such as: “Down the hatch” or “Aargh! Soccer!” then the font changed and got much larger. I think this helps for new readers who are reading aloud so they know when to change their tone and it helps add emotion to their reading skills. This was a great overall book, however I think it’s a little more advanced reading than a three or four year old.

Here a Chick Where a Chick

Here a Chick Where a Chick? By Suse MacDonald

Ages 3-5

Here a Chick Where a Chick was a very colorful and interactive picture book. It appears as though there are different textiles with each color used in the pictures. Each page repeats the same saying “Here a chick where a chick?” which I think is good for beginning readers. Then behind a flap on each page is an animal hiding, in which they say “No, not here a chick…” while describing the animal that is there. On the last page there is finally a nest of chicks. I think this book is also a great tool for learning animals names and the sounds they make because each animal is saying their sound, for example “No, not here a chick…just one cow with a Moo Moo Moo!” I think this would be a fun book for children to read because of the pull flaps, it lets them do something while they’re reading. Even if they don’t know how to read yet, this would still be an entertaining book to look at. There are not many pages so it goes fast and the letters are in large print which is less intimidating for a beginning reader.

Testing

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