Aren't guessing games fun? Children always enjoy them, if the number of times my daughter asks to play "I Spy..." is any indication. That knowledge seems to be the inspiration behind Round Like a Ball, a colorful, interactive picture book by Lisa Campbell Ernst.
This is very much a concept book. I tend to think of those as "one trick ponies." But if the pony does his one trick well, people enjoy watching him! And if a picture book carries its one concept through well, kids will enjoy and learn from it. Simplicity is often a plus in books for young children; it certainly is here.
The idea behind Round Like a Ball is that the text and pictures provide clues. The child is told on page one that this is a guessing game. The first clue provided is "I'm thinking of something that is...round like a ball." A playful puppy romps on a bright red page, chasing after a small blue ball. "I love balls!" barked the dog.
So the child might think that's the answer, but clues pile up in subsequent pages, building onto the first "round like a ball" description. The child discovers that the thing they're trying to guess is also "quite beautiful," "has many, many colors,""is always moving," and several other things.
Remember that small blue ball the dog was chasing? It's a circle actually cut into the right-hand page. It's blue because you're peeking through to the final illustration of the thing you're trying to guess. With each page that gets turned, the text gives more clues, and a different person or creature makes a guess based on the clue. A sister thinks it's a beautiful pearl, a brother thinks it's a gumball machine, a mom thinks it's a ball you juggle and so on. With each guess, the circle cut into the page grows larger, so that you can see more of the culminating illustration.
Although I'd recommend this book for 3-7 year olds, children on the older end of that range will likely have little trouble guessing early that the clues all point to our earth. The color of the ball (pale blue, with touches of green and wispy white), the clues as they build (including facts like "it's hot and cold," and "it's wet and dry,") and even some words on the cover ("what in the *world* is it?") will be tip-offs. That didn't take away from the fun for my seven year old. And children on the lower end may be genuinely stumped at first, which makes this a fun and helpful introduction to some basic facts about the earth.
I'm impressed by the book's design. Although the bit of page we see through the circle stays blue, the other pages are different bright colors. Those background colors are painted in large brush strokes with bits of white, giving pages a slightly marbled look. As you move toward the answer, always turning the page with the hole in it, the pages of the left-hand side build up into beautiful, multi-colored layers. The question mark on the first left-hand page stays in the middle of those layers. The clues themselves are written in bold dark print around that ever-growing-larger layer of circles, so that the words themselves reinforce the circular shape.
I've mentioned that the illustration of the earth is the last page. It's actually not quite the last page, though that's where the cut-outs end. There are a few pages following it, including a fold-out with three folded pages you can open to create an illustration of the earth that's four times the size of the other one. The fold-out pages repeat the clues presented throughout, but this time in one descriptive sentence about the earth.
A fun, interactive book that young children will enjoy: Round Like a Ball would be a welcome addition to any home or kindergarten/early-grade shelf: science, colors and things that are round are all presented here!
Note: The Epinions database apparently lists this as a toy, not a book. It really is a book, though its interactive nature and "guessing game" aspect make it a very playful one. Round Like a Ball by Lisa Campbell Ernst Blue Apple Books, 2008 ISBN 9781934706015
Round Like a Ball -- Is it a meatball? A basketball? A pearl? As the round hole through the pages of this book grows larger, readers will come closer ...More at Fat Brain Toys
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