Picture This

Rating:
Summary: not just for toddlers!
Review: At first glance, Alison Jay's Picture This is a beautifully illustrated book of familiar objects. Her folk art style of strong color and simple lines will appeal to young "book lookers." But look further, study the pictures and subtlties catch your eye. The spotted dog jumps and chases his ball on the page "dog" and appears again, much smaller on the following page, as do the two adults. Look again! The adults are now tumbling down the hill, and the dog's ball is featured on the "ball" page! The adults, the dog, the ball as well as a teddy bear, a plane, a lighthouse and many other objects appear and re-appear, often disgused as tiny details. Young readers will spot them! Adults will search for them! Everyone will enjoy this unusual picture book. A perfect book for sharing.

Rating:
Summary: Never Bores Me
Review: One would think that a picture book with only one word per page would quickly become dull, but this book keeps me guessing every time I read it to my 1-year-old. The pictures are beautifully done in folk-art style, and although the main picture is simply labelled, each page has visual references to previous and future pages - I find something new on each reading! Most importantly, my son loves it and it's a great vocabulary builder ("clock", "car", "book", "snowman", etc.). I disagree with the suggested age range: this is a board book and great for babies and toddlers, but the reading level is perhaps too simplistic for 7-8 year olds.