Old Macdonald's Barn is a Board Book!
Written: Jan 20 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: familiar story, cute illustrations, thick pages, unique shape
Cons: latch can become loose if not carried while shut
The Bottom Line: This is a great start to a mini house book collection.
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| mjtriplett's Full Review: Old Macdonald's Barn Mini House Board Book |
The last time Kid visited Grandma's house he came home with a souvenir. Lucky for us, it wasn't too big, didn't make noise, and was educational! It was Old Macdonald's Barn Mini-House Board Book.
This isn't your traditional book. It's a die-cut board book in the shape of a red barn. The book has 20 board pages which are held closed by a barn-like door latch on one side. The latch is actually a pig's head that sticks out of one of the pages. When closed, the book stands upright like a small barn figurine. It's about 3" all the way around and the pages are doubled-up so they are extra sturdy.
Anyone who has sung Old Macdonald will recognize the text in this book. Instead of a farm, however, the words are about Old Macdonald's Barn so as to make sense with the book's shape. So it goes...Old Macdonald had a barn, EIEIOOOO. And in that barn he had a [insert animal here]. Accompanying the familiar song lyrics are the animals' written sounds and whimsical cartoon drawings.
Each page has a different song verse. Some are familiar, such as "and in the barn there was a cow, EIEIOOOO. With a moo-moo here, and a moo-moo there... But there are a few story twists, including a pig taking a bath (with a splash-splash here and an oink-oink there) and a dog playing a fiddle (with a fiddle-fiddle here and a woof-woof there). This makes for some fun variation and really cute color illustrations.
Kid adores this book. He loves any book about animals right now (21 months old), so as soon as we turn the page to a new animal he will make the appropriate sounds. He loves to hear the words sung or read. Ever since we inherited it, he asks for the "barn book" daily. Although it doesn't fit well within a traditional book shelf because of its unique shape, it's really cute to have just sitting on top of his bookshelf or in front of the rows of more traditional books.
I love that the board pages are doubled-up. Kid can easily turn them and the book can weather a lot of rough handling. Kid has no problem pulling the latch open and pushing it closed to secure the pages shut. The only issue we've had is that he sometimes carries the book by the latch while it is open, so the latch is looking a little loose. I expect to fix this problem with some glue or tape in the near future. In the meantime, we are working with him to make sure he closes the book before dragging it around the house.
Peter Lippman has an entire series of these mini house board books, including a castle and mother goose's house, and also mini wheels board books, including a train and fire truck. I hope to add more of these unique little books to our collection in the near future. I've seen several of them at our Barnes & Noble bookstore for $10.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): gift
Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: 12 to 36 Months
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mjtriplett
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