Matthew Porter (1)

This simple a little picture board book has a circular pattern. On the left side of the first spread we see the face of an elephant and the text reads “The elephant is chasing”. On the right side it reads “a black-and-orange-striped tail” and shows a tiger’s tail and back legs. The tiger chases a bear’s tail, who chases a pig’s tail, who chases a fox’s tail, who chases a duck’s tail, who chases a dog’s tail, who chases a cat’s tail, who chases a mouse’s tail, who chases the elephant’s tail.

My 23-month-old granddaughter adored this book. As of late, she has been fascinated with animal’s tails so this book hooked Into her current interest. She loved the learning which tails belonged to which animals. She asked for it “again” as soon as we finished reading it. By the third read she had memorized all the tails. We reread it four more times before she moved on to the next book. It continued to hold her interest on subsequent visits.

The drawings are bright and simple with no background. The animals are large-eyed and smiling. At the end of the book is a page that shows the animals in their entirety.

Although there is no explanation for why the animals are chasing each other, the story holds enough suspense to entertain a toddler. A cute edition to a little one’s library.… (més)

This is a very different board book and I was getting into it, but was jarred out of the story.

The fox creeps through the night, waking up a series of animals who give warning cheeps, honks, baas, etc. until they awaken the dog who chases away the fox. The story has a nice cumulative effect, although the rhyming text is a little awkward and bland. However, I felt that the line with the ox "And the baas of the sheep wake up the ox, Who bellows and farts at the nasty old fox." were weirdly jarring. Most toddlers don't get potty humor and the rather old-fashioned feel of the text and art doesn't fit with the crudity. There certainly are silly titles with bodily functions that both kids and parents enjoy - Patricelli's Toot for example, but it's clear from the art (and title) what you're getting in that book. A minor point perhaps, but one that weighed against the book's favor for me.

I did really like the art and if the text had been consistent with it would have been much more enthusiastic about the book. It's paintings on wood and has a primitive feel with interesting visual textures. The book itself is slightly larger than the average board book, about 8 inches tall and 5 inches wide. The pages are thick and sturdy and have a nice, glossy shine.

Verdict: While I loved the art, the text just didn't work for me and my library's audience. I'll pass on this one.

ISBN: 9781570619281; Published 2015 by Little Bigfoot; Borrowed from another library in my consortium… (més)

Porter, Matthew. Count the birdies. (2007). Vancouver, Canada: Simply Read Books.

This is a book that shows children the numbers from 1 to 10. Each facing page shows the number and its word on the left page, and on the right side there is a picture of a tree branch with the number of birds equal to the number flying about the branch or sitting on it on the right page. The numbers and their words are always in black with a white background. The number takes up most of the page and the word is in large print. Each picture has a background color, but the background color is different on some of the pages. There are only 3 different background colors, blue, yellow, and green, so the background colors are repeated in the same order on subsequent pages. Each picture page shows branches from a single tree; like the background colors, there are only 3 types of trees. There is no reason or pattern behind the repetition of a particular background color or type of tree other than that they stay in the same order. The colors of the birds on each page are the same color of the flowers on the branch and the color of the background. The flowers and birds are drawn in a moderate amount of detail and are charming.

This is a pleasant counting book for very young children. The pictures and text compliment each other since the picture shows the same number of birds as the number that appears on the left page. This is an effective way to show children the meaning of the number symbol and the word. The color of the text matches the black color of the braches in the pictures and the colors of the birds and flowers form patterns, all of which are details that will bring the child’s attention to the pictures apart from recognizing the number of birds.

Comparison to The Number Garden

Count the Birdies shows numbers (only 1- 10) by showing the number in items (birds in this case), just as The Number Garden does. It also coordinates the color of the number page with a color in the picture page, as The Number Garden does. And, like The Number Garden, it uses patterns to increase interest in the young reader. The difference in these two books is that Count the Birdies does all of these things on a more simple, less complex level. Also, Count the Birdies ends at the number 10 without asking the reader to count the total number of birds that were shown in the book.… (més)