Friday, June 19, 2009

Book Review: Tails

Tails by Matthew Van Fleet
"Tails" by Matthew Van Fleet is a very cute, playful touch and feel board book. Matthew's speech therapist had this book and brought it for a few therapy sessions to read to him. I recently found this at our local library and borrowed it.

page with pull-out tab
I'd say it's a big step above the other simpler touch and feel board books. This book has more variety of textures and more interesting written and illustrated content and design. Except for the thin pig's tail, which was torn off the library copy, the book is well-constructed. The pages are double sided cardboard material with pull-out tabs on some pages that make the tails wag and lift-up-flaps on other pages that reveal a bigger picture, like the peacock showing off his tail. Matthew enjoys pulling on the wild boar's tail. It even has a scratch n' sniff skunk tail! But I personally don't encourage Matthew to scratch it as I don't need to be reminded of how smelly a skunk is. Around here, usually in February and March, there are dozens of skunks that don't make it to the other side of the highway. I'm just glad I haven't been the unfortunate driver that ran over one.

Overall, I say this is a good book. It's a fast read and action-packed so it's perfect for the stage that Matthew is in right now even if it's rated for kids 2 to 5. He enjoys turning the pages and attends relatively better to less wordy books. And for the few minutes that we're reading this book, Yuri, our cat, doesn't have to worry about Matthew going after his tail.

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