Shiny, Touch, Smelly Colors

This book is great. Both of my kids love it. I don't know why it says it's for ages 4-8, since It's a collage-type picture book. There are some words in the collages, but nothing that is necessary to read in order to enjoy this book. I think it's perfect for the 1-2 year old. (Would make a great 1st birthday gift.) This book was a big part of teaching my kids colors because each page features a full spread of things that are one color. So, for example, we can open the page of blue things and say "BLUE! Blue shoes, blue hat, etc.", and point to all of the blue things. I really think it helped the concept of color names to click for them. The pictures are also of simple items they know (fruits, clothing, cars, animals, etc.) so they could also practice recognizing things they loved (which changes often). I could also let them direct our way through the book by saying, "What else do you see?" until they were finished showing me all the things they knew and were ready to turn the page. Sometimes they would just sit, mesmerized for about 30-60 seconds--a long time for an 18 month old!--which was fun for me to watch. They also loved the touchy parts. We would touch them with their fingers and their toes, which they got a kick out of. The smelly parts were OK once they learned how to "sniff", but the smells are all gone now (from overuse). The concept of this book is really great and there are a lot of different ways to explore it!

I love this book! I am a PhD student in Early Childhood Education, a former teacher, and the mother of an 11-month old and I love this book. It has a hard cover with board pages which means my daughter can't destroy it. The colors are beautiful and the pages are mezmerizing - to me and my daughter! Each page has print, objects (not lined up in rows, but filling the entire page), shiny foil-like inserts, a scratch and sniff spot, and a texture spot the reader can touch. The book is very engaging; my daughter loves it. Definitely worth your money!