Baby Einstein Animal Match

This book is a great concept, with slightly flawed design. First let me say I've loved every Baby Einstein book we've bought, my son loves them all, this one included! But, I have to agree with the other reviewers that this book can get torn up pretty quickly by a 2 year old. Let me clarify, even with me letting my son only play with this while he is supervised, (other than the few times he's grabbed it on his own while I'm not looking) this book is not even 8 weeks out of the package and it's pretty beat up! Like someone else mentioned, the chutes for the animals can often fit more than one animal card, and if your child is playing solo with this book, he will find a way to get 4 in one slot and thus the openings are bending and loose. Of course the kids love this so they are anxious to open the flaps, these on our book are the most beat up. Lastly, in some spots the animals don't always slide down, so you have to shake the book to help them along. With that said, my son LOVES this book. It's taught him a few new animals (fox, squirrel) and it's taught him about animal "homes" and habitats. I try to only let him do this when I'm around so I can try and prolong the life of this book, but already at 8 weeks I can see this book is beat up and I'm hoping it will last at least a year. Great concept, I'd love to keep it around for a second child, but I don't know if that will happen. If anything, I'd make the ages for this maybe 3 and up. If you're buying for younger, I'd supervise them to help keep the book in tact.

Product's fine, but $17 shipping and handling on an $11 box of flashcards is ridiculous.

My daughter who is almost 16 months loves this book. She cannot play with it on her own but she knows the animals and can place them (sometimes right sometimes not). What is most important it keeps her occupied and it is fun. BTW the book is for 18 months and up which is also stated on the front cover. In books it is one of our best buys.

Please ignore the previous review from the woman who has an 18-month old. This book is for 4-8 year olds. My 5 year old enjoys learning his classifaction of animals etc with this book but you may have to pick up lost pieces.

My 18 mo. daughter got this book for Christmas and loves it. I think it is ok. It's fairly labor intensive for a book in my opinion. It comes with card board squares meant to be dropped down chutes in the pages so that the child can find them under flaps. 1)You have to keep up with the squares...maybe it's just my child but she seems to find countless new places to stash these pieces. 2)The squares sometimes get stuck in the chutes and you need something (popsicle sticks work well) to push them on through. 3)Some of the chutes are loose enough that a square slides nicely, but my child sees that as an opportunity to shove two and three squares in at the same time. 4)If you have an independent toddler, they may want to work the squares, chutes, and flaps themselves...this book could be built a little sturdier. Ours has torn flaps and pages coming loose from the binding after 4 weeks. But my child loves playing with this (I wouldn't call it a reading book), so I guess that's the most important thing.