Today I’ve got a book review for you. This is a eco-minded, nature focused book that would make a nice gift for little ones who are too entrenched in the digital era.
BOOK: The Looking Book by P.K. Hallinan, published by Ideals Children’s Books (October 2009)
COST: Hardcover, $16.99 list price but you can find a sweeter deal at Amazon.
AGES: 4-8
ABOUT THE BOOK: From the publishers, “A delightful story that encourages children to put down the TV remotes and video-game controllers and take a look at the wonder of the world around them… author P.K. Hallinan uses lively rhyming verse to entice children to delight in the wonders of the world around them. Given a pair of ‘lookers’ by their mom, two boys soon realize that the lookers aren’t needed at all. They just need to take the time to step outside, and they will see how much fun they can have.”
Excerpt below:
‘This grass is amazing!’ he suddenly said.
‘There are all kinds of things here — brown, yellow, and red!
There are twig-things and rock-things
And dirt-things and string-things,
Along with a whole lot of little black bug things!’
WHAT I THINK:
Reviewers included my son Cedar and me. There were things to love about this book and a few cons. First the pros. The book does have lovely rhyming text (think A LOT like Dr. Seuss) that little kids will find appealing and parents will find fun to read aloud. The book has a major focus on enjoying nature vs. sitting around inside watching TV or playing video games which I like. There was also an adventure feeling to the book with the main characters hunting down all sorts of cool new nature things to see.
The children characters in the book, Mikey and Kenny, were cute and likable, although I would have liked to see a girl character as well vs. two boys. Boys, in my experience, are more likely to play outside without coaxing and studies show that girls really benefit from green spaces.
The artwork was charming and full of cool nature shots. Plus, for art in a book it was actually very mobile – i.e. active. I liked the busy aspect and the fact that all the pages had numerious nature items to look at and discover.
The age target is right on I think. Cedar is eight years old but closer to nine. He liked the book because he’s a nature fan but he would have liked this book more last year I’m guessing. I’d say this book is good for kids 8 and under.
The cons:
- The book is not printed on recycled paper – which would have been an organic thing to do with a book of this nature.
- The mama in the book stays inside instead of heading out with the kids. I’m not sure why this irked me, but it did. In my opinion nature loving parents raise nature loving kids. For me the impact would have been better had the whole family gone out outside exploring together. I think that one small change would help encouraged parents in the right direction.
OVERALL SCORE:
3.5 little trees. The book automatically loses one point for not being printed on recycled paper, and another half point because I felt a girl character and more parent interaction would have been cool. Overall though, this is a nice book about kids in nature and would be especially good for a kid who is not very interested in heading outside. This book might help encourage them in that direction.
I’d check it out at the library or if you do want to purchase The Looking Book for the holidays without guilt about the non-recycled pages visit Eco-Libris where you can offset the books you buy.
Other opinions – Sierra Club listed the Looking Book in their nature books for kids round-up and the Celebrate Green gals, who I adore actually gave The Looking Book a similar review to mine.
*See my green product review criteria.
Post from: Blisstree