Friday 5 June 2015

HEY, BABY, LOOK!


HEY, BABY, LOOK!
by Kate Shannon
Illustrated by Morgan Owens
Board book. Blue Dream Books. $7.99. (Ages 0 and up)

ISBN
9780991233007

Rating: ? Stars


I have been reading ' Hey, Baby, Look! ' with my youngest child several times over the past couple of months. He is currently 15 months old. He seems to really enjoy the bright colours and the different images and enjoys trying to turn the pages to look at all of them. When I try to read the text on every page, however, he is often in a hurry to turn the page before I finish, and does not point to a particular image in response to the questions. I think this is just due to his stage of development, as although he understands some simple phrases and can say a few simple words he is not yet familiar with the questions in the book.

He was able to point to the apple though after I repeated the question a few times and pointed to the answer myself. I think he will be better at this as he gets a bit older and I think I will try asking him just one question from each page for now.

He enjoys quite a wide selection of board books, but the ones he chooses to pick up and handle and 'read' in his own little language tend to be very small light ones which are suited to his little hands, and those with images of faces, people or animals and which tell a story.

I think ' Hey, Baby, Look! ' is probably ideally suited to 2 to 3 year olds and I look forward to seeing how my son responds to it in the future and possibly reviewing it again in a few months. I am also interested to learn more about the research behind it, and why most pages have three similarly coloured images and one different. Thank you very much for the book and the opportunity to review it.

(read with Thecodontosaurus antiquus; written by a parent)