Customer Reviews

I Went Walking

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I discovered "I Went Walking" when I taught first grade. It was a part of their literature series early in the year. I have no children of my own and I own both the board book and the paperback edition of this book because I love the illustrations and the rhythmical quality of the text. As someone who has professionally worked with children ages 2-12, I find that this kind of text is invaluable to early readers (ages 2-7). Children can easily pick up on the patterns in the sentences and begin developing many pre-reading skills (like being able to identify the left to right movement of written sentences). To find books that your young child will want to read over and over again is a jewel in their literacy development. To find books like this that you will want to read over and over again with your child is a treasure box of time shared!

This book is so sweet. The watercolor paintings are colorful without being brash, and the child and animals are all realistic and yet stylized at the same time. I love how the child is not defined by the story as being a boy or a girl, and that it looks ambiguous enough to be either.

The repetition of the story makes it easy to read and easy for an older child to learn, and yet isn't the kind of repetition that drives parents wild. As the child gets older, you can drop words and let them "fill in the blank" as they look at the pictures to identify both the animals and the animals' colors.

When I was a Nanny my charge and I adored this book and read it at least a hundred times. Now that I am home with my own son, I bought the book for him and he loves it too!

This book is cute however the text is nearly identical to E. Carle's "Brown Bear". I returned this book only because we owned the other already.

Our son loves this book. In his shorthand he calls it "walking" and asks for it regularly when we sit down to read. I read a review that indicated this book is too similar to "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, etc." but I would disagree. Our son likes them both equally but they do not seem interchangeable to him (or to me for that matter). I would also echo the comment that the child character is appealingly ambiquous and could be either gender. The quality of the illustration and the story presented are delightful.

A "must have" if you have 8-36 month old!! My 14 month old daughter loves the pics and now knows every animal. Wonderful ending too!

This book was reviewed in a graduate course in reading that I was taking. "I Went Walking" is a predictable print book. Such books are excellent in the very early stages of reading. Children memorize the book as you read it over and over and over again. Repetition the very thing our adult mind questions, children ask for repetition that they need. They learn to "read" you the book even when the book is not there. This stage of memorization is the first stage of reading. The child then moves to recognizing the words. For example, "Is this word 'cow'?" So both kindergarten teachers and parents can use this book. It is good to have a half dozen of these predictable print books at home. (Look up: Dorothy Butler's "My Brown Bear Barney".)

The boy and animals played a game of hide and seek. Terry liked the book because it was colorful.Brandon liked the book because it had the color of the animal before the name of the animal.

I agree with the other positive reviews. I just wanted to add that I used this book with a preschool storytime, and I followed it up with a sort of reader's theater. Each child was assigned one of the animals in the book. I took a walk around the room and said, "I went walking." The children all replied, "What did you see?" I held up a card with a picture of the animal on it. They say, "I saw a _____ (black cat, etc.) looking at me!" and then the children assigned that animal got up and followed me on my walk. We continued on this way until we had all the animals in a line, and then we had quick animal parade around the library, making our animals' noises. It was a hit!

We LOVE this book. My 16 month old son really does love this book...the text is repetitive (I went walking. What did you see? I saw a "fill in the name of the animal" looking at me). The illustrations are also wonderful...Julie Vivas also illustrates a children's book on the Nativity. I would love to frame her artwork. :)

This book is wonderful. The younger children love the lilting meter of the poetry and the repetitive phrasing. Aside from the somewhat creepy and androgenous main character, the illustrations are beautiful. The pictures show the animals hiding, allowing older children to guess the animal before it is revealed on the following pages. Older children are also able to recite along with the repetitive phrasing, allowing them to feel like real "readers."