Sizes (Lift-the-Flap) - Anne S. A. Millard

- The Book -

This is a non-fiction book and as the name suggests it's focus is on size and the associated vocabulary:

* big and small
- This double page shows 2 ‘big’ things, an elephant and a skyscraper, adjacent to which are many photos of small things such as paper clips, grapes, buttons, marbles etc.

* big, bigger, biggest
- Chilldren are invited to draw comparisons between three living ...
...the three, a hippo.

* small, smaller, smallest
- Again there are photos of animals and objects, varying in size from small to the smallest.

* tall and short
- The concept of tall and short is then introduced on a double page with a photo of a tall giraffe next to a short dog and a tall sunflower next to short daisies etc. It would have been even better if the author had extended this along the same lines ... more

- The Book -

This is a non-fiction book and as the name suggests it's focus is on size and the associated vocabulary:

* big and small
- This double page shows 2 ‘big’ things, an elephant and a skyscraper, adjacent to which are many photos of small things such as paper clips, grapes, buttons, marbles etc.

* big, bigger, biggest
- Chilldren are invited to draw comparisons between three living things from a big toucan to the biggest out of the three, a hippo.

* small, smaller, smallest
- Again there are photos of animals and objects, varying in size from small to the smallest.

* tall and short
- The concept of tall and short is then introduced on a double page with a photo of a tall giraffe next to a short dog and a tall sunflower next to short daisies etc. It would have been even better if the author had extended this along the same lines as big and small and introduced tallest, taller, shorter and shortest. Since this is not the case, the adult can discuss this vocabulary.

* thick and thin
- As you would expect this shows photos of things with varying thicknesses, e.g. a thick paintbrush next to a thin one, a thick slice of cake and a thin slice.

* Same size
- A double page showing photos of objects that are the same size as each other. Also a good opportunity to name things like, a ball of string, a peach, an onion and an apple. This isn’t one of my favourite pages as although the objects taken for the photo are the same size as each other, in reality fruit and vegetables vary in size and it may give very young children the conception that all peaches are the same size as onions so some discussion and demonstration of the actual objects in real life may be necessary.

* gigantic and tiny
- One gigantic snow capped mountain is shown, alongside photos of many tiny things, such as beach, sweets, sequins etc.

- Style and Format -

The book is aimed at pre-school children and has very thick pages, similar to a board book which means that little hands are far less likely to rip the pages etc...
This book is brightly coloured with great photos of the items. It's very clearly labelled which is great for early reading and letter recognition skills. The font is simple and easy to read, with no ‘loopy’ letters. The writing also varies in size, e.g small, smaller and smallest decreases in size and vice versa.

There are lift-the-flap opportunities on every double page, varying from one to four.

- Educational Values -

This book stimulates curiosity through exploration. It promotes learning through observation, talking and naming things.

It's quite obviously intended to teach young children about size, an important basis for learning about 'Measure' and children can be encouraged to think of their own things that would be appropriate for each page. We even took this a little further and started looking round the house for smaller / bigger things etc.

It encourages and develops fine motor skills through the lift-the-flap opportunities.
This book also offers the adult an opportunity to introduce the concept of a non-fiction book and look at the differences between this type of book and a fiction book which is one of the Early Learning Goals in the Foundation Stage Profile for 3 - 5 year olds.

It develops vocabulary relating to size and objects as there are so many different items / things that can be named in the book.

- Price -
My copy was £4.99
ISBN: 0-7513-3109-0

It may also be well worth taking a look at amazon and the DK website at www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk where orders over 25 pounds get are entitled to free delivery.

There's a wealth of fun, educational books on this website which is very user friendly, listing suggested age-groups etc.

- Dorling Kindersley -

The company was founded in 1974 by Peter Kindersley and Christopher Dorling. When the latter retired in 1987 The Reader's Digest purchased 50% of the shares and it was in this year that they launched the first children's list.
DK publishes an extensive range of titles for adults and children and is the UKs market leader in illustrated non-fiction books.

-Other DK Books –

There are far, far too many to list below. As I said earlier it's well worth taking a look at their website for a more comprehensive list.

Other books in the series of ‘First Concept Books’:
~ Colours
~ Numbers
~ Shapes

This is an excellent book of the same high quality that many have come to expect from DK. An excellent addition to any young child's bookshelf!!

N.B. The photo shown by ciao is not the exact front cover as mine. I've tried uploading some photos but doesn't appear to be letting me this morning!

Thanks for reading.
 

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