September 26, 2004
Children's Books review - Baby's Animal Friends
One of Spark's favorite books is Baby's Animal Friends. Unfortunately, I cannot stand it, and neither can Tree. The text is completely random from page to page (published, appropriately, by Random House), thus giving it the feel of watching TV while someone with ADD is holding the remote. At the risk of violating copyright, the text of the book is reproduced after the fold. (If Random House or Phoebe Dunn is reading this and would like me to take this down, just let me know and I'll happily do so.)
(The following is copyright of Pheobe Dunn and is as such not covered by my Creative Commons liscense. So that part of my site where I say that "some rights reserved excpet where otherwise noted, well I'm otherwise noting right here.)
(Each line represents 2 facing pages. The part before the slash is the text on the left page, the part after the slash is the text on the right.)
This dog is my friend./I give my puppy a BIG hug.
Say hello to my turtle./The baby deer is taking a nap.
Look! Over there!/It's two little chicks.
Kittens are so cute.../and cuddly.
Would you like to pat my bunny?/
"Baaa!" says the lamb./What do ducks say?
/They say "Quack! Quack! Quack!"
Look at that funny little piglet./Oink! Oink!
This little colt is learning to run./
What will hatch from each egg?/A baby bird!
/I pretend I'm a squirrel.
Do cats like to go sledding?/This one does!
gr1d says:
Your turtle picture does not show up in Internet Explorer 6.01, Windows 2003. I clicked the space by accident, then watched in horror as the much larger version of the picture appeared.
Samantha says:
You know, I think we have/had (the boys like to gnaw on and rip apart some books) this book. Children's books these days really aren't all that good. We get given a lot of stuff that we either don't bother reading to the kids or just make up our own text for them if the pictures are nice.
We don't buy anything for them unless it's something we wouldn't mind reading to them a hundred times. Those are few and far between.
Karin says:
Speaking as a semi-former teacher, there are a TON of fabulous children's books out there. Unfortunately, that's not one of them. ;) My suggestions are: 1. Instead of reading the text that's actually written, make up your own story about the pictures (that saves you from getting bored) and be interactive with Spark getting him to name the animals and make their sounds and so on. 2. Find some of the great repetitive books out there like "Brown Bear Brown Bear" as these will help him when he starts reading and I bet he'll start reading them with you, too! 3. Look on amazon.com for reviews of other good books for his age group and also visit the bookstore and ask for recommendations - you might find something he likes even better. 4. NEVER give up reading to him - even the stupid stuff. It really can't hurt. :) 5. Forgive me if you know all these things already! It's the teacher in me. ;)