Animal Opposites by Petr Horáček is a beautiful new pop-up picture book which is perfect for both of my girls (now 1 and 4 years old) because it is fun, bright, educational and appealing to a wide age group.
My eldest daughter, Lara now totally 'gets' opposites and you can see that glint in her eye when she has worked out what the correct opposite term is on each page, even before I read it to her. Lara is just about able to read so she has been trying to read the words in Animal Opposites too.
Holly, at 16 months old, gets great pleasure from listening to me and her older sister use our voices to alter the way we speak for each of the opposites - quiet, loud, fast, slow, etc. She thinks it is funny to see and hear about tall giraffes and colourful peacocks. It brings me great pleasure to see the recognition of the world around them that both the girls get when the begin to understand the concepts of opposites.
I love the beautiful style of the illustrations which are big and bold and really stand out on each page. Colour is used throughout the book to highlight some of the opposites too.
As a pop-up book, Animal Opposites works pretty well. There is only one pop-up page which makes you go "wow" but most of the pages do have an interactive pop-up element and they seem very sturdy, if not the most adventurous of pop-ups.
I'd recommend Animal Opposites as a fun, interactive Christmas gift or as a great book to talk about with your child. Lara and Holly made me read this book to them 3 times in the space of 30 minutes when I opened it and both girls keep lifting it out and placing it in my lap... I think it's the way I read it that makes them want more!
My eldest daughter, Lara now totally 'gets' opposites and you can see that glint in her eye when she has worked out what the correct opposite term is on each page, even before I read it to her. Lara is just about able to read so she has been trying to read the words in Animal Opposites too.
Holly, at 16 months old, gets great pleasure from listening to me and her older sister use our voices to alter the way we speak for each of the opposites - quiet, loud, fast, slow, etc. She thinks it is funny to see and hear about tall giraffes and colourful peacocks. It brings me great pleasure to see the recognition of the world around them that both the girls get when the begin to understand the concepts of opposites.
I love the beautiful style of the illustrations which are big and bold and really stand out on each page. Colour is used throughout the book to highlight some of the opposites too.
As a pop-up book, Animal Opposites works pretty well. There is only one pop-up page which makes you go "wow" but most of the pages do have an interactive pop-up element and they seem very sturdy, if not the most adventurous of pop-ups.
I'd recommend Animal Opposites as a fun, interactive Christmas gift or as a great book to talk about with your child. Lara and Holly made me read this book to them 3 times in the space of 30 minutes when I opened it and both girls keep lifting it out and placing it in my lap... I think it's the way I read it that makes them want more!
