This Old Van by Kim Norman and Carolyn Conahan and a Fiona Friday pic

This Old Van by Kim Norman, Illustrated by Carolyn Conahan
Copyright 2015
Sterling Children's Books - Picture Book/Counting (Ages 4 - 7)
30 pp.


This old van, she passed TWO,
friendly flaggers wave her through.

With a click clack rattle rack,
tooting at the crew,
this old van says,
"GOOD-BYE, TWO!"


Before I said "yes" to reviewing This Old Van, I already knew I couldn't pass up a book starring a van covered in the old "flower power" and peace-sign design. My hippie soul adores such things (I am, in fact, wearing a peace sign T-shirt as I type). And, I did indeed love the illustrations starring a couple of aging hippies and this crazy van racing across the countryside every bit as much as I expected. But, the bonus is in the rhythm. You can tell from the excerpt above (if you know the song) that the rhythm of the verses in This Old Van is the same as that of the song "This Old Man."

So, I actually sang the entire book to the cats. No, nobody has come to haul me to a room with mattress wallpaper, yet. And, in fact, the cats seemed to enjoy it but not as much as I'm sure my granddaughter will when I send it to her.

Highly recommended - A wildly fun counting book that has friendly, upbeat illustrations with plenty of detail to study, a super rhythm that allows you to sing the book to an old-fashioned tune, and unique things to count. On the page with two friendly flaggers, for example, there are also two dogs, two birds in hard hats, two bulldozers, two goats, two signs warning about falling rocks and two unexpected animals in hard hats. Loads of fun for kids and adults. Grandparents who remember the 60s will appreciate that crazy van.

It's Friday but I wanted to squeeze in a review so you get a combination post, today, including a combination of cats for Fiona Friday. I always love those moments when I find the two kitties squashed up next to each other.  It happened two or three times, this week, and I managed to catch the kitties between grooming and playing with their ribbon, on one occasion. It's possible somebody wiggled her fingers to get them to stop looking down.

Happy Friday!

©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Two board books I love: Spot the Animals and 1-2-3 Dinosaurs Bite, both illus. by Steve Jenkins

The following books are both board books that would make excellent last-minute gifts or stocking stuffers, if you're in need of ideas for a baby, toddler or preschooler. 

Spot the Animals is a "lift-the-flap" book in which an animal is hidden behind a beautifully illustrated flap, cut to fit the shape of whatever the animal is hiding behind (leaves, coral, rocks).  I couldn't find any decent images online, so I snapped my own.  I think it's best just to show you a little from the inside.  You should be able to click on each image to enlarge.

There are six animals and colors in Spot the Animals.  In the final page spread, there are six stripes -- one of each of the colors of the animals that have hidden -- and each of the colors is labeled.  On the right-hand side, the 6 animals are shown and labeled by name.  The wonderful thing about Spot the Animals is that it's so simple and short that you could easily read the book to a small baby (I read to mine while they were still in the crib and later would prop them in a seated position and read to them while rocking) but Spot the Animals is also educational, so preschoolers and even early readers can get something out of it.  

1-2-3 Dinosaurs Bite is similar in that it's educational and has a special feature, in this case bites chopped out of each page.  You actually count the chunks missing from the book.  How cool is that?  By the time you arrive at 6-7-8-9-10, there's a page that is so bitten there's only about a third left.

The last page spread incorporates counting with other learning tools, for example: 2 horns, 3 sharp claws, 6 footprints, 8 letters in the word dinosaur.  The final words are "Guard all 10 of your fingers -- these DINOSAURS BITE!"

Both books are highly recommended.  Perfect illustrations that are colorful, balanced and interesting with a unique twist (bites cut from the pages; die-cut shapes the animals are hidden behind) and plenty of educational material crammed into a few short pages make can't-miss fun for children and will satisfy a parent's urge to teach.  I absolutely love these books.  Since they're board books, they're also quite sturdy, even with folding pages and chunks missing.

On a side note, because I had trouble finding any images of these books and had to take my own, I got to see a large number of other illustrations by Steve Jenkins.  It looks like he's the kind of artist I would seek out if I still had small children.  I don't, but I'm hoping there are grandchildren in my future.  I'm hanging onto these two board books, just in case.


©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.