Alexandra Claire

First sentence: Chirp. Hummingbirds ask for lunch with a "Chirp, Chirp" sound. "Please feed us soon, 'til our tummies grow round." BAA. Two lambs in the field are sister and brother. They say "Baa, baa" when they talk to each other."

Premise/plot: This board book features some familiar animals (pigs, cows, sheep) alongside more unique animals (hummingbirds, mice, snakes). It isn't exclusively farm animals either.

My thoughts: This one is written in rhyme. It features some photographs of animals. It's basic.… (mehr)

This book contains 11 colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray, white, black, and rainbow. I like how the order follows the colors of the rainbow and ends with a rainbow (with a few bonus colors). Some pages in the book also include numbers relating to the pictures, such as "three young orangutans" and "five yellow ducklings." While the main focus is the colors, introducing numbers, one of the following skills a child learns, is an excellent addition.

Recommended age: 1-3 years

Writing style: Each page has two rhyming sentences. The words chosen are easy to decode, but they are long sentences. I wouldn't expect a child to read this independently.

Lexile score: AD490L
Decoding difficulty: 3/5
Vocabulary difficulty: 3/5
Sentences difficulty: 4/5
Patterns difficulty: 5/5

Illustration style: Each two-page spread contains a single photo of an animal, the color in large letters, and then a solid-colored bottom section with rhyming sentences containing the color word.

Reality-based: Yes. The book contains real photographs of animals and relatable colors.… (mehr)

I really love this board book ! It is absolutely adorable ! As young readers learn about shapes, they also observe how shapes also exist in Nature. Animals and geometry are closely linked in this fun book : boxfish is a square, praying mantis is a triangle, hedgehog is a cercle, stingray is a diamond, pink shield bug is a rectangle, baby owl has a heart-shaped face, sea turtle is an oval, starfish is a star, bees store honey in hexagon and caterpillar curves in a crescent.

The photographs are beautiful. We can easily observe every detail of the animals and insects. They are very colorful and eye-catching. The text is simple and poetic, made of playful rhymes.… (mehr)