Usborne books are produced in the U.K. by Usborne Publishing, and are published and distributed in the U.S. by Educational Development Corporation (EDC). In 2009, EDC acquired Kane/Miller Publishing, a San Diego based company which specializes in award-winning children's books from around the world. Books from Kane/Miller offer a chance to expose our children to other cultures they may not otherwise experience. This "more" has been a fantastic addition to our catalog, bringing the total number of books available to around 1500.
The first of the new titles I'd like to share is a Kane/Miller title, from England, called "Jungle Animals" by Anton Poitier and illustrated by Sophia Touliatou.
This is a very fun book with lift-the-flap fun, and predictive text, which makes this great for little ones who are just starting to read. Each left hand page reads "Can you find me? I'm hiding somewhere!" and has an illustration of a jungle animal (the first one is an elephant). On the right hand page are four flaps to turn over in sequence, and in each one is a different animal, with text that reads "It's me" and the name of the animal. After turning over all four flaps, the backside of all the flaps together shows the animal from the left page that we were originally searching for, and has the text "You found me!" After reading this aloud with my children just once, my 5-year old emergent reader began reading this all on her own.
Other great features to keep kids engaged: there is a small bird hiding throughout the book, and at the end is a picture of all the animals, asking readers how many they spotted.
The recommended ages for the book is 3-6, but you do have to be careful with younger kids, as the flaps do not close easily on their own as pages are turned. The book has 10 pages and is 10.25" x 7.25".
The book is available for purchase online for $12.99, or can be ordered directly through me.
