A fun read, but that picture of the puppy is all kinds of creepy. ( )

Match found in the German National Library.

Maybe Carle's most masterfully laid out book of all. This makes a kid feel like he/she is inside the book, following the clues to the secret birthday message. So simple and brilliant.

Eric Carle begins this story by introducing us to the character named Tim who is reading a message regarding his birthday. We see Tim reading a birthday message in Code, which we soon unlock this code as we flip through each page. Each page is designed to be a symbol in the coded message we were introduced to in the beginning. This is a fun interactive book that will keep young readers excited as they flip through each page. As we journey through the pages to fin out what Tims birthday message is leading him to, towards the end we find out it's a cute little puppy. The book ends with an illustration of a map showing the adventure we took to get to Tim's birthday gift. ( )

This one was interesting. It was different from the rest of his books I've read. This one told a story instead of repeating a couple lines. It has the classic illistrations and the simple text but there was more here than in the other books. I though this book used shapes perfectly. There was a letter at the beginning that used shapes instead of the shape word. Then through out the book the shaped were shown by page shape and a real life version of the shape. I really liked this one. ( )