Category Archives: Book

I love to read.

Book Review: My Very First Book of Colors

Read to Me, Dad: My Very First Book of Colors

Eric Carle is probably most well known for his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. But he has many other books as well and one of them is My Very First Book of Colors. Yesterday my Mom gave this book to Eva and I read it to her. Well, there isn’t much of a story it is a book that shows a color and then lets you match up the color with an illustration of something that is predominantly that color. The pages are split in the middle so that you can flip the color on the top and then flip the 2nd half of the page on the bottom to find the item of that same color.

This is an excellent book to use to start teaching your small child about colors because the illustrations are top rate and the book is interactive with the split pages. It is also a board book so Eva can munch on it a bit too and it will hold up for future kids.

This book is also part of a set called My Very First Library which includes the books My Very First Book of Colors, My Very First Book of Shapes, My Very First Book of Numbers, and My Very First Book of Words.

Read to Me Dad Ratings

  • Story – No story, just names of colors.
  • Re-Read-ability – Excellent, repetition is a wonderful thing for growing minds and we can read this to Eva over and over.
  • Illustrations – Excellent -The bright colorful and playful images created by Carle are excellent.
  • Message – No message, just a book of colors.
  • Plot – No plot, just a book of colors.
  • Characters – No Characters, again, a book of colors.
  • Does Eva Like It – Eva was slightly interested in the book but then again I think she wanted to chew on it.
  • Recommended Ages – Baby-PreSchool

Book Review: Olivia

Olivia

Today I read Eva Olivia by Ian Falconer. Ian wrote and illustrated the book. This is a fun book for parents to read to their rambunctious kids because Olivia is a precocious little pig who likes to wear people out. Do your kids often try on everything they own before they go out for the day, how about trying to recreate a Jackson Pollack painting on the living room wall. These and other things are what Olivia excels at, however she is still cute and fun so we can’t get too mad at her. The writing is simple and the illustrations are very well done yet retain a very simple look. Eva kept trying to pick up the book over and over. So since it was a board book I let her go to it. And then I picked up my camera for a few shots.

Read to Me Dad Ratings

  • Story – short, not many words. The illustrations tell a great tale. And you can describe the illustrations to add to the story.
  • Re-Read-ability – Very good, I think Eva will like the Olivia books more and more as she gets older.
  • Illustrations – Excellent – Where Jan Brett is amazingly detailed Ian Falconer tells a tale in so many fewer lines.
  • Message – Good – Not much of a message here. The story is cute however.
  • Plot – Fair – Not really a plot however we are introduced to Olivia for future books in the Olivia Series. There are a few more books.
  • Characters – Great – Your kids will love Olivia and her precocious nature.
  • Does Eva Like It – Eva wants to eat the book and touch it more than hear the words and the things I say about each illustration.
  • Recommended Ages4 to 8