Kidsbooks

review of
Kidsbooks Publishing's Let's Learn Animals
by tENTATIVELY , a cONVENIENCE - December 31, 2021

The last bk I reviewed was a Star Wars Sound-Effects bk that I got at a thrift store b/c it came w/ buttons to press to play the sounds. I wanted to use it as an instrument &, in fact, I did sample from it in a movie I just finished today called "88 Instruments" ( https://youtu.be/zLZi2AVHx6w ; https://archive.org/details/88-instruments ). My playing w/ the Star Wars bk inspired me to look for other bks w/ similar sampler potential so I looked online & bought this one. I think it might be intended for 0 to 3 yr olds. Since I'm a 0 yr old it seems perfect for me. This has 27 sound effects.

The buttons for these sounds have cartoonish images of the animals whose names are pronounced followed by a representative sound. The bk is divided into multiple 2pp sections: "Farm Animals" (12 examples), "Forest Animals" (13 examples), "Rain Forest Animals" (12 examples), "Sea Animals" (14 examples), "Grassland Animals" (9 examples), "Desert Animals" (10 examples), "Mountain Animals" (12 examples), "Birds" (14 examples), "Arctic Animals" (10 examples), "Wetland Animals" (10 examples), & "Australian Bushland Animals" (10 examples). Since there are more examples than there are sounds for them I reckon one of the challenges for the young reader is to try to find at least one example in each category whose image they can match to a button. I succeeded in matching the dingo & the kookaburra, wch were the last 2 buttons from the last category. Suspicious that there might be a system that makes it easier for the budding young minds I noticed that the bobcat & the swan were the next buttons in reverse order (bottom-to-top, right-to-left). Yep, walrus & polar bear are the next buttons from the 2 next 2pp spread ("Arctic Animals"). Having my pattern recognition confirmed thus far I didn't pursue the matter any further (well, actually, I checked the next 2pp spread & got further confirmation). I also sampled from this is in the above-mentioned movie.

All in all, I like this genre of bks & imagine that they're excellent teaching tools. I'm already using mine to tell me how to conduct drunken brain-surgery on road-kills &, so far, I've brought thousands back to life. Don't thank me, I'm just doin' my job, ma'am.… (mehr)