This is a cute and friendly book full of color and personality. I picked it up after seeing it on a list for storytime books. And while I can see where other people could make this into a great storytime book, I am presently not one of them. (That of course isn't the book's fault. Just an observation.) I really liked the range of animals in the book and vocabulary that it presents is almost completely excellent. I also really like how as the book is over, the bats are just starting to come awake.On the flip side here are the reasons that it wasn't fantastic for me: Some of the illustrations don't really work that well. The squirrel is ok, but the tail took me a minute to figure out with the ridges and the clam is just odd. But my bigger issue is Coffelt's tendency to use words to describe the creatures that are derived from the thing being defined. Telling me a clam is clammy, that the pig is piggish, of that the slug is sluggish is only helpful if you already know the words or the animals. It sort of defeats the point. Now if she had said that the newt was clammy or that the sloth was sluggish, that would have been far more interesting. I was very impressed with this picture book for children. It reminded me of this quote I saw once, "Children's books actually contain 50% more rare words than prime time television." The language of comparisons, synonyms, and antonyms contained in this short book is amazing! There were words I've rarely or never heard of and some words I didn't know how to pronounce. Way to go, Author Coffelt for opening the world of words to adults and children!Theme: SizeReviewed from a library copy.
What do You think about Big, Bigger, Biggest! (2009)?
This one has got some great vocabulary words in it. All my kids liked it.
—ginger
