One Thousand Things by Anna Kovecses

One Thousand Things by Anna Kovecses
Buy One Thousand Things by Anna Kovecses at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Children's Non-Fiction
Reviewer: Lorraine McDonald
Summary: 'One Thousand Things' is a compendium of knowledge for pre-schoolers. With an interactive format, bold illustrations and a cheeky mouse hiding on each page, learning about concepts such as time, colours, counting and seasons, will be fun.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 80	Date: March 2015
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
ISBN: 978-1847806079
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When you are just short of two years old there’s a whole lifetime of learning ahead. Where to begin? Well, you could do a lot worse than get Mum or Dad to buy a copy of Anna Kovecses’ One Thousand Things. Don’t believe the mouse on the front cover holding a balloon saying learn your first words. To bill this book as a ‘vocabulary builder’ is to woefully underplay its hand. Study hard and this book will see you safely through nursery and in to reception as an assured four year old who can hold their own in the cut and thrust of classroom debate.

Though there are many words and objects in 'One Thousand Things', unlike some other 'first word' books that I have seen, this edition goes beyond pages of themed things. What is presented here are concepts; the stuff of everyday life that grownups may take for granted but little ones must learn. Weather, body parts, colours, seasons are all introduced with a question to frame them and encourage interaction. To mention just one example What are the different times of the day? Here the concept of time is introduced with four sections of a circle labelled ‘morning’, ‘afternoon’, ‘evening’ and ‘night’ with illustrations to prompt recognition. With seven chapters, this book is one to be delved in to, returned to, to master, maybe even to take away on a trip.

This is the second Wide Eyed publication I have been lucky enough to review. Maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover, nor for that matter, the quality of the paper stock within, but when it’s a picture book that may turn out to be a favourite, these factors are a consideration. In this case, the book is huggable, sniffable and strokable. The bright, digitally created images are easy on the eye, with kid and parent appeal and an air of comforting naivity. The clear font is helpful for early readers. I also liked the grown up touches of chapters with headings and pages with numbers so even young ones get an idea of the structure of 'real' books.

The last pages in the book consist of one thousand tiny images to show what 1,000 really looks like. The mouse from the cover is hiding in there. She’s there on every page if you look hard. Mouse may not know the answer to the question of what is the meaning of life, but she will arm your toddler with much of what they need to know to get a head start in school and motivate them to learn it. She really needs to consider being less modest on that front cover.

For any other owners of inquisitive toddler's consider another Wide Eyed publication - Colours by Aino-Maija Metsola

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You can read more book reviews or buy One Thousand Things by Anna Kovecses at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy One Thousand Things by Anna Kovecses at Amazon.com.

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