My wife recently bought a bundle of books, one of which is My First ABC Lift-The-Flap Board Book. This 10-page board book which is published by DK (Dorling Kindersley) Books appealed particularly to Keenan, our two-year-old due to the interactive nature of it. The three-year-old also enjoys the book, but the one-year-old is barred from 'reading' it, as he ripped one of the flaps off already!

This book works through the alphabet graphically with several pictures of objects or actions which start with each letter. Along the way there are several (45, to be exact) flip-up panels which reveal other related pictures. For instance, on the page with the letter L is a picture of a lemon. Flip the flap and the lemon disappears to be replaced by a lime, which also starts with the letter L. Under the letter D is a picture of a door which flips open to reveal a dinosaur. This is one of the boys' favorites! Through reading this book, the child learns to associate letters with words that have certain sounds, thus learning the alphabet while having fun with the flaps!

The board-pages are full of pictures ranging from animals to children to different types of foods. The pictures are cutouts on a simple white background which makes the colors jump out at the reader. The editor was wise to use vibrantly colored photos with a lot of kids on the pages, as this seems to particularly interest our young boys and keep them reading.

As I said above, Keenan particularly loves this book. He often requests for his mother or I to sit with him and read the book. He will more often than not tell you what is under the flap prior to flipping it over yet he never seems to grow tired of the book, which is more than I can say for his mother! In the books defense, however, Keenan has had a noticeable increase in his ability to tell us what a word starts with after spending some time with this book. The interactive nature of the book and the fact that it works to teach the child the alphabet through word association makes this a highly recommended book in our house.

This review is an entrant in the Lean N' Mean III write off challenging us all to write helpful reviews while being less wordy.

Recommended: Yes