Small Talk: 8

When she was very young, my daughter loved pop-up books like this one. The sections that pop up form opening and closing mouths and bills, something that she was fascinated with. The story involves a series of common Earth animals all talking about a flying saucer that landed on the roof. They are: a cat, a crossbill, a bulldog, a duck and a hippo. The last animal is a little green Martian. My daughter would have loved this book.

This is one of my favorite Jan Pienkowski books. The text is sparse. It's a short message that gets boggled as it is repeated over and over (like in the game "telephone") by a series of animals. It's not really a story, though--it's more of a statement. To that end, I suppose a teacher could use it as an entree to a discussion of listening skills. Or, perhaps a parent could use it to highlight the importance of taking accurate phone messages or something of the sort. But I don't see it as the type of book a child, particular an older child (post-kindergarten) would read over and over again. On the other hand, I think it is a very appealing book for babies and young toddlers, even though it is not recommended for that age group. The text will be lost on them, but the marvelous pop-ups won't. They are big, colorful, three-dimensional animal faces. My son loved them. He was only a baby, but I would lay him on his back and show him the pictures and make the animal sounds. He would reach up and put his hands in the animals' mouths and giggle. As he got a little older, he would go through the book himself, saying the names of the animals and making their sounds. Of course, the downside of babies and pop-up books is that the pop-up books end up taking a beating. SMALL TALK did not make it to my son's second birthday. Even so, when I have another baby, it's the first book I'm going to buy him (or her).

Cute pop-ups, good for very young children. It's one of my childhood favorites as well as my sister's.(We're 13 & 11 now)

We are on our second generation of kids enjoying Jan Pienkowski's wonderful pop-up books, including Small Talk, which was originally titled "Gossip". The illustrations are bright, vivid and amaze children & adults alike. Highly highly highly recommend these books.