Little Bee Books

First sentence: Martin is singing. Hello, Martin.

Premise/plot: Meet fifteen little ones from around the world and say 'hello' to each in his/her own language. This one "teaches" little ones how to say hello in fifteen lanuages. The languages include: English, Chinese, French, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, German, Swahili, Navajo, Russian, sign language, Hindi, Portuguese, Japanese, and Italian.There are photographs instead of illustrations.

My thoughts: Simple text, photographs, and a pronunciation guide for adults who are reading this one aloud. I like the concept--and this is a concept book--I'm not sure I love, love it. But I like it well enough. I definitely appreciate the use of the photographs.… (mehr)

It's a good 'un. The pictures are big enough and simple enough, with thick lines, to be forgiving for our son, who is not yet two and is making a valiant effort to colour in the lines. That is rarer than you think, and in fact when I've been going around looking for colouring books most of the bookstore people I've talked to have assumed it was complicated grownup ones I wanted (for our "stress," like video games and everything else in this topsy-turvy world where eight-year-olds take "flex days" and middle-aged men shoot each other up online). The themes are a bit repetitive though: many vehicles, animals, fruits, toys and the like. Why not a fantastical scene or two?… (mehr)