Right Reads: Best of books!

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Boy, was I horrified (again!) when Lucas and I went through this set of picture cum colouring books!

Before our move to China and because I can’t read/write Chinese, I’ve never visited the Chinese book section. My first encounter with Chinese picture books was a “stunning” one as a gun and a rifle are used to introduce the concepts of “long” and “short”.

Now that he’s starting preschool soon, I bought a bunch of bilingual preschool books to familiarize him with the Chinese medium of instruction.

Check out this seemingly innocent cover with an excavator:

This 62 page book introduces the Chinese name for invidiual items, with the Chinese character, hanyu pinyin and English word all next to each other. What’s also fun about it is that kids can colour in each item, with suggested colours next to them.

What horrifies me though are these pictures:

BULLET AND MAUSER

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Tags: musings, preschool by KittyCat
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BRIGHT BABY BOOKS - TRUCKS, ANIMALS, FIRST WORDS & COLORS
(ISBN: 0-312-49447-5)

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 Lucas 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”.

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Tags: babies, picture book, preschool, toddlers by KittyCat
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The Great Book of Transport: The Beginner’s Guide to Land, Air and Sea transportation
by Lynne Gibbs
Publisher: Alligator
(ISBN: 1-84239-944-6)

When my toddler’s included trucks as well as trains, I knew I needed a book to help me with the vocabulary for this traditionally male territory. Not knowing if I may need to know about other types of transport, I was glad I found this bumper book!

Recommended for ages 9-12, this hardcover 150 page reference contains more than 400 full colour photographs of the “biggest, boldest and most stunning models” of all time (as at 2006, that is).

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Tags: elementary, non-fiction, preschool, primary, toddlers by KittyCat
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Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten by Linda Desimowich and Stacey Kannenberg
ISBN: 1-933476-00-1

One of a set of 2 books recently released by Cedar Valley Publishing, “Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten” begins with an introduction by Mrs Good, the class teacher, who welcomes the students to a class for “children of all ages and stages of learning development”.

She encourages the reader to:

Unlike other pre-K books, I like this book for the 2 lists of:
a) early childhood skills that parents and teachers should introduce to the child and
b) tips for parents and caregivers on how to bring out the best in their child.

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Tags: preschool by KittyCat
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