The Guinea Pig ABC

My son received this book when he was 3 from his godmother (a children's librarian who found the best stuff for him). He loved it and so did I. The guinea pigs are adorable. Lighten up on how educational it may or may not be! The book is fun. I'm on this site because I want to get a copy for my bilingual German niece (4). (My son is now 22.)

After reading this book about three times to my kindergarten class, they had it memorized. I was able to make flash cards of the adjectives and put them in alphbetical order for lots of fun games. If a child has memorized a book it is easy to get them to follow along and look at the words as they say them. I learned to read this way. I read The Guinea Pig ABC book to my four year old grandson and during his first week of kindergarten he read it to his little classmates. My grandson is now in 7th grade and has always excelled in reading. If you asked him how he learned to read he will tell you about his grandma and the Guinea Pig ABC Book. That person who gave the book one star probably likes the old Dick and Jane books. "Look, look. See funny, funny Jane" is a very boring way to learn to read and it isn't necessary.

The review giving this book one star is quite a revelation. It's unfortunate the reviewer was unaware that all the words in the book are adjectives - what a brilliant innovation for an ABC book!Apparently the person who wrote the review is working with very disadvantaged children. Generally young children, even those under three, know words such as 'empty', 'quiet' and 'neat'. The purpose of this book is to help enrich a child's vocabulary, and not repeat the common 'apple, bird, and cat' ABCs. And the wonderful illustrations are as appealing as those in any of the very best children's books.

The reviewer who gave this book one star, Jay Babcock, underestimates the intelligence of the average 4 to 5 year old. Certainly 1-3 year olds may not get the concepts in this book ""E" for Empty" with two piggies looking at an empty mailbox. It is the parent's or reader's job to explain the illustration and what "empty" means as a teachable moment. Everything should not be spelled out and spoon fed to kids or they will never learn anything at all. The children that I have seen checking out this book again and again loved it and when they sounded out words, they were so happy to get them right. They were inspired to read further and read other books as well. It is highly unfair of him to suggest that she had no business writing this book. I found the book to be delightful and wonderfully illustrated and again, the children I have seen reading this book in the library clearly loved it.

My toddler loves this book. At first I worried that the concepts were too advanced for him, but after several reads he got quite a few of them. He asks me to read it to him again and again. I think this book helped him learn his alphabet before his 2nd birthday.