Reading Response: Board Books

 Counting Book

     

This book contains a rhyme scheme with the minimal words on each page.  Every two pages makes up a short couplet rhyme with a corresponding illustration. The repetition of “1-2-3-4” on multiple pages helps young children to begin counting, and the use of illustrations focusing on the counting of fingers and toes also allows for children to count along as the book is being read. The lines on the pages are curved, with a broad, dark line outlining the images on each page and soft, painted lines that fill in each form.

PINKNEY, A. D. illus. by Brian Pinkney.  Count to love! 10 p. Scholastic. Oct. 2021. $8.99. ISBN 9781338672398.

Alphabet Book

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The illustrations are at the forefront of this text.  As the book progresses through the alphabet, there is a clear illustration on each page, along with the letter at the top.  There is a very short sentence describing the illustration as well. There are very bright colors on each page, one bright color that is used as the background and additional colors that help to make the scene on each page the focus. There is unity on each page with illustrations that directly relate to the letter of focus.  The illustrations are realistic enough for children to identify each element on the page, and they are painted large enough to also identify details within each and help small children to focus on each element because of the bright colors. This book provides significant alphabet knowledge for literacy development. 

HARRISON, E. (2022). ABC for Me: ABC Bedtime: Fall gently to sleep with this nighttime routine, from a to Zzz. 32 p. Walter Foster Jr. Feb. 2022. $16.99. ISBN 9781600589904

Concept Book 

This book contains rhyme as it moves through various animals and has short couplets that describe the sounds each animal makes. This, according to Horning (2010), helps in “making a text easier for children to listen to” and “enhances the predictability of a story” (p. 45).  This book about animals contains a cut out that gets smaller as the pages progress and represent smaller and smaller animals.  There is a large, colorful hole to begin the book and represent a lion, all the way to the last animal, a mouse, with a very tiny mouth.  This also allows for perspective in the size of each animal featured.  Since young children need to hold books and absorb language based on colors and shapes (Odean, 2003), this book provides the opportunity for young children to hold the book, flip the pages, and discover the size of each animal.

LITTON, Jonathan. Roar. illus. by Fhiona Galloway. 16 p. Tiger Tales, 2024. $7.99 ISBN 9781589255937

Lift the Flap

The flaps on various pages of the text are large enough for children to lift unaided.  Alliteration is included in the heading of each page that helps children to gain a scope of a variety of activities on that page that connect.  For example, in order to be “Happy and Healthy,”  children need to wash their hands, take a bath, and get lots of sleep.  These illustrations help to provide clear unity among the ideas on each page and the ideas within the text as a whole.  While this is a children’s book that has fun manipulatives on each page, it is also a book that helps young children to understand the importance of taking care of their bodies and living healthy lives. The illustrations, while painted to show various scenes, are very realistic with clean lines. This concept book not only includes flaps, but there are some wheels that children can turn as they’re handling the book.  This is important because Odean (2003) notes that “young children understand physical properties of books” so allowing them to handle the book in various ways promotes reading skills.

PRIDDY, Roger. My Little World: My Body. illus. by author. 10 p. St. Martin's Press, Oct. 2021. $9.99. ISBN 9781684491483