My Big Animal Book

From the time my son first learned to talk, he has shown a fierce curiosity about what things are called as well as a total fascination with animals. I picked up Priddy's My Big Animal Book to help him identify various animals as well as to build his growing vocabulary, and it was a tremendous success on both levels. The book features large, sturdy pages that catalog a variety of animals you'd find on a farm, in a zoo, or in people's houses. There is also a section on baby animals. The photos are large and colorful, and never fail to capture my son's attention. Between this book and My Big Truck Book (Priddy Bicknell Big Ideas for Little People), my son's vocabulary and understanding of the world around him increased by leaps and bounds. His first trip to the petting zoo and Zoo Atlanta were even more fascinating to him after seeing the pictures in this book. The day he saw real gorillas for the first time, he turned to me with a stunned look and shouted "Gayayas, Dada!" Thinking about that never fails to put a smile on my face! The book also allowed us to use his curiosity about animals to teach him about sizes, animal sounds, counting, and colors. My son is two years old now and far more interested in storybooks, and the knowledge he gained from My Big Animal Book was a great help in transitioning him to books like Hug and Where's Spot?. He still takes this book off the shelf time after time just to look at the great photographs of his favorite animals. I highly recommend this durable, colorful, and inexpensive book to all parents of curious toddlers. As teaching aids go, My Big Animal Book has proven far more effective than many a high-priced electronic gadget or DVD.

I bought this for my son when he was about one year old. He loves this book. He picks this among other books because it is big. Loves the pictures (very bright and clear pictures. The right number of pictures on each page) He points to each picture and asks us to name it. Or we play the "Where is..." game. He wants to read this everyday. A great way to increase his vocabulary. He can correctly point at a lot of animals now. There are not many BIG board books with real pictures out there. Atleast I havent found many.

My son received this book for his first birthday and it has quickly become a favorite. He still chooses this book regularly at storytime and he is now 18 months old. Reasons to buy this book include... 1. Great book for language development. The animals are sorted into groups including Baby Animals, Pets, On the Farm, Birds, and At the Zoo. A great book for playing "Where's the..." and "What's that?" pointing games. 2. Clear, beautiful photos. Each animal photograph is also placed against a solid colored background so that the image really stands out. 3. Unlike other animal photography books, the pages are not an animal collage with all the animals mixed in together. Each animal is shown in a square or rectangle with the name of the animals printed in lowercase underneath. Babies and Young toddlers are often confused by jumbled images and prefer the simplicity of how the animals are presented in this book. 4. The book also has a rhyming, interactive text. For example on the zoo page it says, "I'm hard to see when I'm out in the snow. Who am I? (polar bear) I carry a trunk wherever I go. Who am I? (elephant). My toddler, like most, is highly attracted to rhyming text.

I got this for my one year old twins, and they simply love it! They enjoy looking at the bright and colorful photographs of all the animals and this book enables me to make it a fun way of teaching them what different animals look like and the sounds they make. One of my twins always wails when I am finished and I close the book -- she simply wants to look at the book some more! I highly recommend this book for parents with young children.

My son (13 months) loves this book. He pulls it out several times a day and flips through it over and over. The pictures are fantastic and include a variety of animals which many other board book fail to include.