1-3

A relief from alphabetical monotony.

ABC & DoThis book is enchantingly fun. It’s interactive, stimulating and colourful; three aspects which are key to engaging the budding reader. If I’m being honest, I think I like this book even more than my little guy. Whilst he enjoys reading it, half of the novelty elements have been ripped off or nibbled on. The thing is, my little man is obsessed with his ABCs. As you can imagine, the result is that we have piles upon piles of ABC books.

Since I seem to be in the mood for confessionals, I might as well tell you the sheer amount of letter and number books around the house is more for my benefit more than his. Seriously, you can only say A is for Apple so many times a day and in only so many ways! But ABC & DO has found a funky way to keep it fresh and interesting (thank you, Egmont… really!).

One page is a puzzle (j is for jigsaw), another is a refrigerator and freezer, one with food and one without (E is for empty and F is for full), another has a telephone with a spinning dial on it (C is for call). The design of this book is a little bit brilliant.

I bought this book from a Big W which means it is affordable and easily accessible. If your little one is caught up in the ABC craze, do yourself a favour and considering purchasing ABC & DO.

Written by Lee Singh, illustrated by Karen Wall. Recommended for children 3-5 years (or parents who are dreaming of apples, boats and cats).

A bit of quick novelty fun.

All Around TownWhen I came across this book I was pretty keen. For starters, the book is somewhat of a novelty; it is shaped like a miniature city – I think that’s kind of awesome. Inside the city, there are cars and roads and six buildings – each building has a dedicated little first-word type book, eg. hospital, school etc. and each book is filled with words related to that building, such as ‘student’, ‘patient’ etc.

Visually speaking, the layout of this book definitely breaks up the monotony of some of the other first-word books that I’ve come across. Unfortunately, I ended up more interested in this book than my son which is not a great thing because, not to boast here, I already knew all the words. I’m not sure I can actually explain why my son isn’t totally into it because it appears to have everything you’d want and/or need in order to attract a very young reader. I’m going to persist with this one because the words inside are actually quite useful, and not often found in a lot of the other ‘baby’s first word’ books.

I am recommending this book, but I’d caution that you test it on your little one before you buy it. I’m thinking of bringing it to playgroup this week and seeing if the other little hands find it more appealing. That being said, I think it’s worth a try. I’d recommend it for children ages 1-3 (though 3 is pushing it).

All Around Town, illustrated by Veronica Klimova, can be found at: http://www.paperchainbookstore.com.au/search.cfm?UR=BI234258&search_stage=details&records_to_display=50&this_book_number=28