Customer Reviews

Baby Einstein: Jane's Animal Expedition

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

 

 

My son likes looking at the pictures and the flaps. However, it reads a little rough - something is off with the sentence strucutre. Also, there are errors in the printing: fishES is not the plural of fish and they connfuse the words puffins and penguins throughout the book. Confusing! I am surprised at this coming from such a reputable company.

The pictures in this book are VERY VIBRANT. Each pages features a story in a rhyme scheme, making it sing-songy. On the back of the book, there are some tips for parents about applying the book to your child's life.

Why only 4 stars?
The flaps can tear if your child plays with this book. I wish the creases of the flaps could be reinforced.

The best way to encourage your child to read is to have books in the home.

There's a cartoon of a puffin. It's labeled as a penguin. There's a polar bear in the same picture. Penguins != Puffin & Penguins don't inhabit the same hemisphere as polar bears. At the end of the book they have a match the baby to its mommy section. In there they correctly identify the animal as a puffin.

I'd normally give this sort of thing a pass, but you can't name your products after a genius and then make boneheaded errors.

My 14-month-old son loves this book! However, it drives me crazy because of the errors in the text. Don't they have editors to check these before they are sent off to print? For example, they print on one page that the puffin is a penguin and later, they use puffin. They also are inconsistent with their use of plurals for some groups of animals, but use the singular form with another group of animals. (Giraffes)The idea of the book is great, I just wish someone had done some editing before releasing it.

My daughter LOVES (LLLLOOOOOVVVEEESSS) this book! She has other Baby Einstein books but this one is her favorite - as soon as we finish with it she will want to read it again (and again and again). She is 16 months old and already hisses at the snake, roars at the tiger and lion, growls at the bear, and hoots at the owl. Two days ago she floored me when she pointed to the tiger and said "tiger." The great thing about this book is that it has animals from many habitats (jungle, savanah, artic, forest, ocean, desert) and tells you a little about each habitat. The story is cute - Jane is looking for an elephant and travels all over the world trying to find it - and entertaining for children. My daughter listens to the story and loves lifting the flaps to uncover the animals. She has ripped two of the flaps off (the book has for ages 18 and up) but I do not regret giving it to her at a younger age. Her love for this book has grown her love for animals. A definite "must buy."

My two kids - 18 months and almost three - both love this book, and they love watching it on the "storytime" bonus feature on Baby Noah. By the time my son was just learning to talk, he had already memorized the verses and would repeat them over and over. Yes, enthusiastic kids may bend the flaps but that's the down side of a lift-the-flap book. It's worth it for the smile they always get when they uncover their favorites.

My 18 month old was very into peek a boo when we got him this book and he would just love fliping up the pages and playing the game with all the different animals. Another great book to take in the car, airplane, or out to eat.

My 11-month-old loves this book, and loves lifting all the flaps. The flaps are a bit flimsy as others have mentioned. But so far, we have not ripped any. The story is cute, written with a cadence that I think he finds engaging. We read every day, and this one is one of his favorites (along with all the Karen Katz books).

My son wore this book out. We read it every night for 6 months. The flaps were so much fun for him and every night he'd insist we read it. Definitely a top 10 for babies.

ISBN 0786808411 - Marked for ages 18 mos. and up, Jane's Animal Expedition isn't just another book that introduces your child to the names of animals. It isn't the lift-able flaps that sets it apart, either. The thing that makes this book different is that it introduces various animals AND their habitats - a small thing, but a nice change.

Jane has great adventures in her plane. She sets out to find elephants today and passes over jungle, desert and other terrain, where she sees a lot of animals - but no elephants! After flying several places, Jane knows where to go, and finds the elephants she's been looking for in the long, brown grass of the savannah. The last two pages reinforce the habitat information the reader has learned and some ideas for expanding the lesson are on the back cover.

There are some small things wrong here. The text, by Julie Aigner-Clark, is rhyming and the cadence of the rhyme is somewhat off. Nadeem Zaidi did an awesome job as illustrator. The images are jump-off-the-page bright, take up every inch of the pages and have some detail without being overwhelming. The pages are standard board book thickness and will stand up to some rough handling, but like all lift-the-flap books, the flaps are weaker and more apt to tear or bend. The educational aspect is a nice addition, not unexpected from Baby Einstein / The Walt Disney Company.

(Because I've read reviews that point out, incorrectly, an "error" in this book, I thought it was worth noting that "FISHES" is a correct plural for fish - look it up [dictionary "fishes", google "plural of fish", wikipedia "English plural"] before you decide that this book isn't for you because it contains something you think is a grammatical error... that happens to NOT BE an error!)

- AnnaLovesBooks