Customer Reviews

Squishy Turtle and Friends (Cloth Books)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We received "Squishy Turtle and Friends" as a Christmas present for our 9 month old and it is one of his favorite books -- and mine too. Each sea creature is interestingly textured and the short, 2 line rhymes on each of the 8 pages are clever and I actually enjoy reading them out loud. Of course, he loves to linger on each page and feel the terry cloth starfish or pull back the pink plastic oyster shell, revealing a pearl. I found myself going crazy over some of the silly rhyming books I was reading over and over, and while he doesn't appreciate the cleverness of the rhymes in Squishy Turtle, I can, and that makes a big difference!

"Little fish with shiny scales
are fleeing from alarming whales!"

Doesn't get much better than that. And finally, it's a cloth book, so he can eat it when we get finished reading it!

I bought this book for my newborn because I wanted her to grow up loving to read. When she was a few months old, she loved to chew on the soft cloth pages and stare at the brightly colored pictures. Then she learned how to turn the pages. Now at 10 months, she still loves to touch the 3-D part of each page and hear me read the simple rhymes.

We love all of the different objects and textures that she can touch and explore on each page:
1) Padded aqua turtle shell
2) Shiny metallic fish
3) Ribbon used as water from a whale spout
4) Padded pink vinyl crab shell
5) Silver seahorse fin
6) Green felt octopus tentacles
7) Pink oyster shell with satin inner lining
8) Terry cloth seahorse
9) Metallic seaweed rolls

This crinkly cloth book is easy for babies to hold and great for teething. It also keeps little hands busy during car rides. Although the manufacturer recommends surface cleaning only, I've successfully washed mine inside a mesh lingerie bag on the gentle cycle. And it still looks new...

We got Fuzzy Bee and Friends as a gift and our babies LOVED it even from only several weeks old. After a few months I purchased Squishy Turtle and Friends and they love that one just as much. It has several different textures and sounds as well as very colorful pictures. My son's favorite is the seaweed - it sticks out of the book. My daughter's favorite is the whale's spout which is made with some white string. I highly recommend this book as well as Fuzzy Bee.

You've probably noticed a lot of the "complaints" are that Amazon ships this book in the "short" version form. Well, that's not Amazons fault. Priddy books started back in like 2002 or 03 and each of their books (Turtle, Bee, Chick) had about 10 pages of fun animal characters that included cute rhymes, tactile features, and fun sounds. Apparently, in 2007 or so they re-did the books and took them all down to 6 pages (some think it was a copyright issue, others say it was for safety reasons). So whether you buy this from Amazon or your nearby book store (ie Barnes and Noble) you're going to wind up with the "cheaper quality," short version.

Knowing this was a possibility I bought it anyway because there are still some good reviews for the shorter version. Now, I wish I hadn't bought it. Sure, the colors are bright and it's a cute book that baby enjoys (which is the only reason it gets 3 stars, my review would only be 2). But the threading around the turtle started coming off after just an hour or so of play. The only page that makes any noise is the cover (it's just the standard crinkly noise all cloth book covers seem to make). The tactile (whale string, seahorse fin) are too small for my 6 month olds hands (or maybe eyes) to reach (or care about). He only enjoys this book for the same reasons he enjoys any other cloth book. It's nothing special, and for $10.00 I wish I had chosen a Lamaze book instead. The Lamaze books I've seen have more pages and more tactile options. Also, they tell a story that connects all the characters together. But for some strange reason they have lower ratings on here. From now on I'll try not to be fooled by high ratings and go with a product/brand name I know is good quality.

Hope this helps!

The "search inside this book" feature shows that there are eight sea creatures in the book. However, the version I received has only six (see my uploaded customer image). The book has the same ISBN as the longer version. Feeling deceived!

I had this book with 8 characters in it. My son loved it. I bought this book along with three other books in the same series by Priddy as gifts for my friend. When I received the shipment, three out of four books were the SHORT version ones with 6 characters in them. The quality of the cloth is poor and thin. Very disappointed about the shipment. REX and friends is the only one "LONG" version book I received. It is very easy to tell that the long version book has much better quality. I called a couple of local book stores to check the availability of the long version books; it seems that the short version of this series is everywhere now....

Best book ever. My daughter loves to touch and feel (and chew) these pages. She acts like it is new every time i hand it to her. We take this book everywhere as it holds her attention for quite a while. Definitely worth the money!!!!

My 5 month old already loves it! He spends his time kicking, hitting the book and trying to get the whole thing in his mouth. I love the fact that it is written in rhyme and that it has such teriffic bright colors. What a well designed book, we can't wait to start Fluffy Chick--the suspense is mounting . . .

I bought this cloth book for my daughter based on several other reviews. She is coming to 6 months old and it is one of her favorites! She is attracted to the bright colors and loves opening the oyster and grabbing the octopus legs. Most of the time she does end up chewing the book but it keeps her amused for a good period of time. I love it because they are washable too but I put it in the dryer by accident and it ruined the crinkliness of the front page but it still makes noise.
I highly recommend Squishy Turtle and plan on buying some of the other ROger Priddy cloth books to build her collection.

I recently purchased this book because my 6 month old loves the Fluffy Chick book, and I thought sea creatures would be fun! I especially liked the iridescent fabric pictured on the turtle on the cover of the book. When the book arrived, the turtle had a boring green polyester fabric on his shell, and the rest of the touchable fabrics were of a lesser quality and less fun than in the fluffy chick book. Additionally, the stitching work looked sloppy, so I sent the book back. On top of all of this, the book was mailed 3 weeks after the rest of my order. I suggest buying a used version and washing it.