TouchThinkLearn: Baby Animals

by Xavier Deneux

Overview

Featuring spreads with raised, shaped objects that fit into scooped cutouts on their opposite page, these new TouchThinkLearn books offer the youngest learners an opportunity to explore in a hands-on, multisensory way. Seeing the image, tracing its shape, saying its name—these modes of perception combine to stimulate understanding of essential concepts. Discover a polar bear by tracing its raised outline on one side, and the concave shape of its cozy den on the other! Related words on each spread offer a springboard for further conversation to encourage the language skills crucial to later successful learning. In a format unlike any other, these groundbreaking books translate abstract thought into tangible knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452145198
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	03/08/2016
Series:	Touch Think Learn Series
Pages:	16
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 7.20(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Xavier Deneux studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris. He has worked as a graphic artist, creating posters and decorations for various industries, and has illustrated more than forty children's books. He lives and works in Paris, France.

Editorial Reviews

03/28/2016
Readers meet eight baby animals in this elegant entry in the Touch Think Learn series. As in previous books, glued-on shapes dovetail with die-cut holes; here, it often amplifies the sense of the young animals being nestled safely inside their homes, such as a pair of birds in a tree trunk hole or two polar bears in a snowy berm. Anywhere from eight to 13 words appear in a tidy font in the corner of each spread, a mix of nouns and verbs that give readers plenty to point out and discuss: “jaw,” “teeth,” “snapping,” “chomping,” and “basking” are among the words included for a riverside scene featuring green crocodiles. A stylish animal introduction with real vocabulary-boosting potential. Available simultaneously: Homes. Ages 2–4. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A stylish animal introduction with real vocabulary-boosting potential.”-Publishers Weekly

“Classy, beautiful, and developmentally appropriate-a winner.”-Kirkus Reviews, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 2016-03-02
Sophisticated design and extra-thick pages invite handling of this entry in Deneux's TouchThinkLearn series. The cover—a cheery yellow duck recessed in a pure white egg-shaped cutout—says, please touch! Each subsequent spread features a raised die-cut animal that fits neatly into the recessed shape on the right with details of that animal's habitat or behavior. The frog on verso fits into the lily pad-shaped cutout on recto, for instance. The cutouts in Homes, published simultaneously, mirror the raised images exactly, while in Baby Animals, the animal figures are typically smaller than the shapes on the opposite page. The name of each baby animal—tadpoles, a joey, chicks, cubs, puppies, and kitten—is set in large, boldface type, while more words associated with that animal are in smaller print, starting with the word for the adult animal and followed by words that describe its habitat and important characteristics. Finally, actions typical of the animal are in italics. Young children might be confused that both the turtle and crocodile are called hatchlings, but that is the appropriate scientific term. And yes, mother crocodiles really do carry their babies in their mouths, as depicted. Generous white space, tactile design, and rich vocabulary make this and its companion good conversation starters for babies in the one-word stage of language acquisition, and the addition of verbs extends their usefulness to toddlers beginning to form two-word sentences. Classy, beautiful, and developmentally appropriate—a winner. (Board book. 9 mos.-2)

Kirkus Reviews