Ian Pillinger

"This board book is shaped a little like a fire engine. The front cover has a picture of a fire engine in a bright red he/she has big head light eyes and a big bumper smile."

The illustrations in this book are brightly coloured red engine blue bell ringing its warning sound bright yellows for the fire and simple drawings. These colours are attractive to a small getting their interest in the book. This book has a few words clearly printed, but I suspect mum and dad will be reading this to baby before he/she can read and then when they start reading they will look at this book and be able to pick words out. The text is written in rhyme, which will appeal to young ears.

The story is of big red. Who “with a jangle of bells ” races along puts his ladder up. There is a cute picture a cow watching with ducks and rabbits while “the hose stretches out” The next double page “Gallons of water pour from the spout” with the red fire engine looking on with a satisfied smile. The fire put out the book finishes with a picture of big red surrounded by animals and the words “you’re a hero today”.

Most children love fire engines so I think this will attract them. While reading this to your child you can point out the colours and so introduce and support the recognition of colours and their names. You can point out the animals and call them by their names ask your child where is the cat/cow? Introducing on under, and behind at one point the cat is on the fire engine. The cow peeping out from behind it. The essential part is enjoy reading with your child encourage them to enjoy reading.

I think this book is a fairly good book and I believe it comes from a series including a book about a police car and an ambulance.
CIAO (http://www.ciao.co.uk/Big_Red_Fire_engine_A_baby_driver_book__Review_5413002)
… (mehr)