Yummy Yucky (Leslie Patricelli board books)

I am a speech therapist who works with children ages 0-3, and this book is probably one of my favorites to use in speech therapy. Many of my clients are kids who have not started talking by age 2, and nearly all of them will sit for this book. Visually, I like the simplicity of each page, with a single illustration on each page, and all of the "yummies" on the left, and the "yuckies" on the right. Also, the simple repetitions are good for stimulating speech and cognitive development. Many people in their review of this book have mentioned the more questionable "yucky" items, such as hot sause, earwax, and sand. Now I've presented this book to dozens of kids, and I've never had behavior problems result from this book. However, part of its enjoyment is the humor that derives from the yucky items - if you find the phrase "Burgers are yummy, boogers are yucky" distasteful, then I recommend trying Laura's "Big Little" or "Quiet Loud" books instead. These books will give you the same development benefits, without having to venturing into your personal definitions of "yucky"!

I got this book for my shower along with the Quiet/Loud book. Now that my son is a year old, we've only recently gotten interested in these books. I do understand others' comments about not wanting to introduce boogers and earwax, but really why not? They're not bad things... they're just yucky. While my son is still a little young to really get the humor of this book (it really is very funny), he loves the colors and the pictures of the baby on each page. And I think he does get the concept of things that are yummy (we make yummy noises at every meal) vs things that are yucky (every time he goes to put something he shouldn't into his mouth, I repeat "that's yucky. we don't eat that) All things considered, an entertaining and unique children's board book.

We introduced this book to my toddler at an age when he was eating sand in the sandbox and grabbing pretty much anything else he could get into his mouth. This book was a fun way to explain why we don't eat sand, kitty litter, or worms. He loves this book, and we do too! We all always laugh out loud when reading it. The illustrations are really colorful and bold, and the text is downright funny. Some people are offended by the advice not to eat earwax or boogers, but if you think it's not bad to warn a toddler about that (or even funny!) then your family will love this book.

My boys LOVE this book and I have to say I do too. The illustrations are adorable. My four year old has it memorized. The burgers are yummy and boogers are yucky makes him laugh so hard. Although the first time he read about the ear wax he wanted to try that. Crazy kid. So it gave me a good laugh too. I think this is a great book that makes learning to read fun for little boys...and I am sure some girls too.

We have a blast reading this book - it cracks my kid up everytime! Leslie's illustrations are bright and textural, and the baby character is hilarious! We've read all three of her books over and over. I see that there are a couple more coming out soon -- looking forward to reading them as well!