Customer Reviews

Five Creatures

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Heartwarming book from the perspective of a preschooler classifying [a budding librarian!] the creatures in her house, two cats and three people.

"Two who lick each other. Five who kiss each other."
"One who sings loud at night." (one of the cats)
"One who sings loud in the morning." (Dad)

All of her cat-egories (sorry) are just exactly the categories a preschooler would come up with:

"Four who like to eat fish...two who like to eat mice. Only one who likes to eat beets."

And the pictures...perspectively-challenged, muddy pastel-ie montages from Bogacki...are perfect. If you haven't discovered his solo work, seek it out. This would make a great game starter for a family OR a storytime OR a classroom.

The most notable aspect of this charming picture book is the picture design, with old- world appeal vying with playful humor to create a perfect background for the whimsical text. Five family members are presented, with three humans and two cats sharing certain qualities and just as often showing their differences. The text is presented as part of the page design and draws the reader into the illustrations.
One who sings loud late at night
And one who sings in the morning.
The illustration on the left shows the male cat (with grey hair) yowling on the windowsill and the male human (with grey hair) singing into the mirror as he shaves. The story is told from the viewpoint of the one child in the story, one of three with orange hair.

When my daughter was 2 and 3, she didn't really "get" this book. But now that she's 4 we read it all the time; she likes pointing out to me which characters any given line of text is talking about (like, "I think the mommy is allergic to milk" or "I think the cats can open the cupboards."). She gets really engaged and we end up talking about all kinds of subjects when we read it, so I'm a big fan!

A charming, gentle book about a family... a family of 5; 3 humans and 2 cats. We don't have cats but the concept of pets being integrated in the family structure, emotionally and physically, is realistic and warm. I give it as a gift to families with pets. My 3 children and I enjoy figuring out which of the 5 members of the family likes milk, sleeps on beds, licks rather than kisses. The chalk drawings carry a diamond-theme in the center of the page throughout the book that is clever and effectively ties the pages togther. A lovely book.

This picture book will make for interesting yet ultimately unsatisfying reading for young children. A little girl who describes the "Five Creatures" in her family - her parents, herself, and two cats - tells the story. The girl demonstrates similarities and differences between the family members. Among the descriptions: three have orange hair (including one of the cats); three like to drink milk; and all five like sitting in front of a warm evening fire.

Jenkins and Bogacki do an admirable job of demonstrating distinctions and common interests among the five family members, but the book does not follow through on its promise to educate youngsters of these concepts. The text is written in a cold and declared style. The artwork, while cute and graceful in its chalk-colored pencil and charcoal renderings, fails to bring much warmth to the story. The book is satisfactory as a read-along, but children and parents can do better in searching for another book with a similar theme.

I can't believe that so far this book has only received 2-star customer reviews--perhaps these folks just don't get the charm of this book and are unusually critical. In fact, this title has received glowing reviews from many publications, including three *starred* reviews: Horn Book, School Library Journal, and Booklist. I plan to add it to my library collection.

I have no idea why, but I was prepared to not like this book, despite its great reviews. On my first reading, I was blown away. This is a wonderful book, one that engages children, helps them think, sees the similarities between animals of all types (in this case mammals both human and feline), sees humor in life and situations, and observes what is happening in the immediate vicinity. I enjoyed reading the other reviews about this book, seeing how teachers use it for fractions and sentence structure. If Venn diagrams were introduced in grades two or three, this would be a wonderful book to Venn-diagram. Reading this book is a warm, positive experience.

I used this book for my kindergarten class to accompany a number sense book by Chris Confer. This book can also be useful for teaching about fractions in the upper grade.

I love teaching the sentence pattern of this book with ELLs.
They can copy it, substitute words, and eventually create their own complex sentences.

Five CreaturesI was pleased with the quality and low price of this book. I look forward to using it with my preschoolers to teach them about sorting.