Up & Down by Britta Teckentrup - OPTIONAL

Teckentrup, Britta, Up & Down. PICTURE BOOK. Candlewick Press. 2013. $17.99

Pre-K -- OPTIONAL

“Little Penguin misses his friend. She lives on a faraway iceberg.” To get to his friend, Little Penguin jumps and dives. He goes up and down, in and out, over and under. Finally arriving at her iceberg, the two friends are finally reunited.

I wanted to love this book, but found it to be just okay. Being a “lift-the-flap” book, it is seemingly geared towards young readers. My 13-month-old is a lift-the-flap fanatic, but this one just didn’t hold her interest. The pictures, while beautifully illustrated, are dark and set on dark backgrounds. This combination proved to be a turn off for my little reader. The flaps were hard for her to find and didn’t reveal anything too exciting. Slightly older reader might enjoy the imagery while still enjoying the simple concept of the story. We’ll have to try this one again when she’s a little bigger.

Reviewer: Rebecca H., Language Arts teacher

The Odd One Out: A Spotting Book by Britta Teckentrup - ESSENTIAL

Teckentrup, Britta  The Odd One Out: A Spotting Book  Big Picture Press, 2014.  $14.99  PICTURE BOOK  Content: G.  

PREK, EL (K-3)-ESSENTIAL

This is a great “I Spy” type book.  Each page spread has a two stanza rhyming poem that gives clues as to which animal is supposed to be different than the rest.  The illustrations show animals of all kinds: camels, penguins, bats, fish, etc.  Then the reader is supposed to find the animal that is doing something different than the other animals, such as: find the camel with one hump among a page full of camels with two humps.  Or find the penguin who is hiding a baby under its wing among a page full of normal penguins.  The illustrations are modern and fantastic.  My five and four year old boys love, loved this book and wanted to look at it more closely when we got to the end.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson.