Customer Reviews

Alphabet (Paula Wiseman Books)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We just love his books and this one has fun for many ages! Our 11 month old loves the textures (and to pull off the moving parts, we are saving them to glue back on later). Finding the animals and plants will be a lot of fun later and we can't wait until he is old enough to have the poster in his play area. So many gifts in one book!

What a great book! You can learn about the alphabet as well as fun and friendly animals all in one place. The concept and pictures are very much like "Tails", another great book by Van Vleet, so if you were a fan of that book, you will like this one as well. The author rhymes his way through the alphabet with visual and tactile delights, while describing animals--some familiar and some slightly off the beaten path. Your child will love the friendly illustrations of alligators, dragonflies, elephants, and frogs, while you will scratch your head and wonder how you could have gone your while life and never heard of a quahog, uacaris, or xenops--all great new Scrabble words! The fact the he chose "zorillas" for the letter "Z" and not the standard "zebra" you would find in most children's books shows that he refuses to "dumb down" a book--instead challenging young children with new ideas.

What I really like the most about this book is that it can "grow" with your child. Very young children will enjoy touching the different textures and making the kangaroos "jump". Older children will enjoy looking back through the book for the challenge of finding other alphabet word pictures that the author provides in the back of the book. You also get a 21-inch color poster included with the book that has pop-ups of the animals with corresponding letters that you can use to teach letters (or animals for that matter) to hang in an older child's room. A very worthy investment for your home library.

This book is both visual & tactile for child.
Teaches alphabet, includes poster & other activities searching for various other animals, objects, vegetation using the alphabet.

The book is well made so hopefully after many readings the 'pop-up features' remain in tact.

The illustrations are also well done.

Length:: 4:35 Mins

"Alphabet" is our second book by Matthew Van Fleet - our first was HEADS (BOARD BOOK) which our daughter really enjoys. If you have never seen one of the Matthew Van Fleet books please see the video portion of the review. The books are completely interactive - they offer a variety of textures, colors, and moveable panels that offer hours of fun for little hands. Alphabet introduces you child to a variety of animals that start with the various letters of the alphabet. What I like about it is that it offers a little more variety than you would expect - for example for the letter "Z" most of us would expect "Zebra" but "Alphabet" uses the "Zorilla" - instead of a "Whale" you get a "Warthog" and things like that.

Other notes

- I would strongly suggest that you buy "Alphabet" or any Matthew Van Fleet book from an online retailer. These books do damaging rather easily when played with young hands. As a result, almost every copy I saw at a box store had damage,

- A great gift for your child or for a niece or nephew that happens to have a birthday.

- Comes with a wonderful "Alphabet" poster that has a variety of tabs that reveal an animal. See the video review for an example. The poster alone is nearly worth the price of the book.

- Lots of texture, animation, tabs and silly situations for the animals.

Final Verdict - Probably my new favorite Van Fleet book - very highly recommended.

5 Stars

I just want to start this by saying that Heads and Tails are my daughter's ABSOLUTE favorite book (and ours actually)! They flow nicely with great almost lyrical rhythm that literally gets stuck in our heads. Cute pictures, A LOT of fun things to touch, feel, move, and look at. That being said, Alphabet is not Matthew's 100%! We like it, we like that it rhymes, but the first page segment and the last page segment do not rhyme...feels weird and put of place. :( Not our favorite, was looking forward to so much more. The pages in between are pretty good, Octopus with sticky tentacles my daughter gets "stuck" on, but nothing compared to our family favorites; Heads and Tails! If you need to choose one, go with Heads, but they are both GREAT!! Alphabet is good to own, but definitely not the top choice in our house.

My 2.5 yr old loves all the Matthew Van Fleet book (Tails, One Yellow Lion, Yellow Spotted Frogs), so I was very excited to see another new book of his. This one is really great... very cleverly made. Teaches about alphabet, animals, colors, textures and so on. I would recommend it to one and all.

I purchased this book for my grandson, and we have had many great times sharing this book. The book is well illustrated and durable.

this is a great book and kids love it it is flimsy though so i wouldnt recommend it for really young ones

I love all of Matthew Van Fleet's interactive books. Fortunately my children are not the pull on the page type so this and all of our others have managed to last quite a while. The colors are vibrant and I love all of the textures for children to touch. Some of the animal names are a bit "out-there" and difficult for children to pronounce, otherwise this is a great book!

Great book! Lots of fun actions! Great pull-out poster featuring the animals seen throughout the book. Highly recommend for little ones of all ages.