The Secret Birthday Message Board Book

This book is an excellent choice for beginning readers. The story is constructed from very short sentences and the associated visual effects are colorful and based on shapes constructed from partial pages. It opens with a riddle that is a secret message directing Tim to where he can find his birthday present. That present turns out to be something that nearly all children wish for, so the trek is one that will interest most children. I strongly recommend it for all children who are taking their first steps in learning to read.

Prior to my grandson's 3rd birthday, I gave him several books about birthdays. This one was his favorite. He was immediately drawn into searching through the clues which use directional words such as below, behind . . . He was breathless to find the surprise at the end of the book. And I'm not telling what the surprise is;it's a secret. I will tell you that it's a gift that most every child dreams of receiving. Of course, Eric Carle's art work is magical. Make a child's day--give him or her this book.

Tim gets a message in code that will lead him to his birthday present. The code contains shapes, and the shapes correlate with cutout pictures of such things as the moon, a star, rocks, and a cave entrance. The cutout pictures half reveal, half conceal the pages behind it, as we fellow the code, a set of directional instructions: Below the star, behind the rock, down the stairs, up and through... After finding Tim's gift, first a pair of eyes but revealed to be a puppy, we are asked if we can find our way back. A map on the final page shows a spatial layout of all the previous instructions. At first I thought of this book as a single gimmick stretched, inflated into a full text, but it is actually more clever than that. It is a fun book that kids can quickly memorize and get the hang of, with the same fertile and detailed illustrations you are familiar with if you've seen any of Carle's books. But it is also challenging children to think through a set of instructions, think sequentially and directionally, then have to shift sets and run the sequence backwards. Good stuff, thanks Carle. And who doesn't love a cute puppy?

This book is about a boy (Tim) who had received a secret message for his birthday. You must follow the message, which is teaching shapes and through the wonderful illustrations catches the concepts of these shapes associated with this world. The pictures wonderful as all of Eric Carle's are and this is a fun adventure!

My daughter received this book for her 1st birthday and although she was too little to "follow" the symbols of the "secret message" she adores the shaped pages, the large pictures of easily identified objects - moon, stars, rock etc. and the birthday present at the end which you can peek through to see the page before was her absolute favorite. I need to purchase another copy for her because she has just about worn it out!