Hide and Peek (Animal Time: Time to Read, Level 1)

by Lori Haskins Houran, Alex Willmore (Illustrator)

Overview

Every time Bird hears a strange noise, she goes Eek! and hides her head in the sand. But the sound is always just one of her friends playing nearby. Can her friend Elephant convince her that there's nothing to be scared of?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807572085
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	08/01/2019
Series:	Time to Read
Edition description:	None
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	80L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 7 Years

About the Author

Lori Haskins Houran is the author of more than forty books, including Next to You and Space Mice. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.

Alex Willmore has been drawing characters since the moment he first picked up a pencil. He lives in the UK.

Editorial Reviews

2019-04-28
With a loud "Eek!" an ostrich named Bird hides its head in the sand at every "peep."

Elephant encourages ostrich to "Peek, Bird!" The originator of the "peep" turns out to be only the friendly Ape. This simple scenario is repeated when Sloth peeps, but when it's a mouse that peeps, Elephant is the one crying, "EEEEEEK!" Now it's Bird's turn to encourage Elephant to "peek," before all the animals play a game of hide-and-seek. In companion title Stop, Fox! the action focuses on the talkative Fox, who bothers Bird, Ape, and Cub (a bear) with incessant chatter. But Fox's talking puts Sloth to sleep. The uncluttered layout in both titles is a plus, but the artwork is otherwise undistinguished. The simply rendered animals have a generic look that nevertheless may result in confusion. Ape, for instance, has a tail even though apes are tailless, and masked Sloth may well easily be initially mistaken for a raccoon. Bird has an ostrich's characteristically luxuriant lashlike fringe at the eyes and is the only animal gendered female in the publisher copy (no characters are gendered in the text). The sentences are brief and repetitive, but the text's brevity means that words may not be repeated frequently enough to be absorbed by the youngest readers. Hide and Peek uses just 17 words with three basic sentence patterns. The 30-word story in Stop, Fox! is more fully developed, with sentences and phrases repeated more frequently.

A slight story that's more useful than it is satisfying. (Early reader. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews