I bought this box set of Bright Baby books from Borders for RM63.90, which is value for money because each hardcover book costs about RM15.98 each. There are other books in the series but I chose this set for the varied vocabulary he would encounter through them.
These brighly coloured board books are just the right size for toddlers to handle and turn the pages. Also, the high quality photographs accompanying each word is large, simple and vivid enough to turn on your baby or toddler.
The publishers have also been thoughtful to set each photo against a high contrast, single shaded background – this makes for clear communication to the young toddler who’s still needs a direct relationship between pictures and words e.g. a pair of shoes for “shoes”.
My only complaint about the set is the typset “a” used in the words, which may (or may not) present a problem when they learn to write the rounded small letter A. Also, this uses American spelling and vocabulary, which means you’ll read ”colors”, “garbage truck” and “airplane” instead of the British “colours”, “rubbish truck” and “aeroplane”. Look out for the British version if you’re particular about this.
While I appreciate the inclusion of Black and Asian children in the books, I still find that more can still be done to embrace the diversity of food, objects and animals found in other cultures other than the typical Anglo-Saxon (or North American) one.
Mothers with little boys who love trucks will find this book helpful to differentiate a “big rig” from a “brush rig”, a “mini loader” from a “dump truck” and “a bulldozer” from a “digger”, “scraper” and “excavator”. Mind you, they are all not the same!
Also, when my toddler read it, he was super confident when he reads out each name distinctly and turns the pages himself. This book has been with us for over a year now and still, it remains one of his bedtime and booktime favourites.
This book introduces 26 first words, with photos of actual items representing each of them. I find that the photos pose no confusion for children, which an illustration might. The photos are simple yet contain enough details that naturally come with them.
For example, in the close-up shot of a cat, Lucas could point out the cat’s eyes, nose and “small mouth”. Also, he remarked that the cat’s ears are ”up there” and that the cat has “green eyes”.
Every day items like “t-shirt”, “pants”, “shoes” and “socks” are immediately recognizable – again, this boosts a little learner’s confidence that he can identify or “read” so many words from the book. This way, he’ll be more likely to progress to other, more wordy books.
I like the range of animals presented in this book because animals from various regions (Artic, Africa, Asia, North America) and settings (domestic and wild) are shown e.g. “penguin”, “macaw (instead of the generic “parrot”), “goat”, “frog”, “goose”, “chimp”, “sheep”, and “bee”.
Again, I find that the photos used help Lucas to know each animal by sight that he can correlate a pencil drawing, oil painting or animated “bear” with a real, live one.
I really like the way the colours are introduced in this book because each page presents a colour in 2 ways: one object in that colour against a white background while the opposing page has another object against a similar colour background.
For instance, for “pink”, a pink gerbera is on a white background while a black girl in a pink dress is set against a darker pink background.
Now, the similar shade background is really important especially in helping to identify colour blindness in children. Children who have colour blindness will normally find it difficult to pick out the object from its similar shaded background.
Overall, I’d recommend this set of books to parents looking for a sturdy set to start their home library.
BRIGHT BABY BOOKS – TRUCKS, ANIMALS, FIRST WORDS & COLORS
Publisher: Priddy Books
(ISBN: 0-312-49447-5)
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