So, I love it when
I do finish reading a book, then check the back cover and see that its
description is exactly what I experienced. No hype. Just real.
Although
the cover for The Big Book for Words and Pictures certainly hooked my
eye, it’s the inside pages that truly got my heart racing – faster and faster
the more pages I turned.
For you
see, even this middle-aged book lover can appreciate content for two-year-olds,
yes I can. Especially when it’s this good.
My first
impression of this book is that it’s kind of the world on a platter for tots.
It covers, like, everything. From colours and shapes to the contents of houses.
From numbers and the alphabet to animals, the seasons and the weather. It’s
just all here. All of it. And it really makes me want to be little again. I lament the fact that I did not have this book as a toddler. No fair.
Plants,
food, musical instruments, getting dressed. Sport, transport, jobs and emotions.
It’s like every single toddler book rolled into one – and what I love most
about it is the detailed simplicity. There’s no headings, no divisions, no
complications. Just lots and lots of gorgeous pictures, sometimes spattered all
over the pages, sometimes sequential, like the little bear getting dressed and
the duck who ages from pram to wheelchair.
This book
is just a detailed snap of… life. It’s everything – no rhyme nor reason. Just
is. Just there. Like the world of a toddler – full to brimming with excitement
and beauty, everywhere you turn.
If these
40-something eyes can skip, utterly entranced, across page after page, smiling
and soaking up these gorgeous images with hand-clapping glee, you can imagine
the collected hours of gobsmacked silence your child will experience by reading
this book. A silence that will be undoubtedly followed by pointing, asking,
questioning, showing, ranting and book-toting from room to room and into bed
for the night.
Charm
personified and so kid-friendly, simply everyone’s hands will be clapping in
glee – whether four or forty.
Title: The Big Book of Words and Pictures
Author/Illustrator: Ole Könnecke
Publisher: Gecko Press, $24.99
Publication
Date: October 2011
ISBN: Könnecke
Format: Hardcover
For
ages: 0 - 5
Type: Picture Book, Board Book
