[.ca] Robert Crowther's Most Amazing Hide-and-Seek Alphabet Book (ISBN 0744561701)

From Amazon.com:
The first page of Robert Crowther's delightful, interactive pop-up book is pure white, with the big black letters a and b looking perfectly innocent. Tug on the up arrow, however, and a playful, cartoonish ape swings down from the letter, revealing the word ape. Pull the down arrow on b, and a bear peeks through the middle of the letter. On the next page, c flops over to reveal a wily crocodile, a flip of the d sends a dolphin leaping, and a tug on the e pops out the trunk of an elephant! The remainder of the alphabet yields equal delights, as sweet animals blink and scurry and fly and stick their necks out from behind, beneath, and above the letters. Kids will adore this whimsical introduction to animals and the alphabet, and adults will marvel at Crowther's cleverness. (Preschool and older)

lots of fun:
My 15 month old adores this book. It's wonderful-much cleverer than the other pop-up books we have (and we have a lot!). I'm giving this to all his friends for Christmas.

a most amazing memory:
This book had a previous printing and there was no colorful front cover, but that did not take away from the marvelous experience that I enjoyed with my young son back in June, 1982 when he turned 2 and received this book as a birthday present. It was fascinating to watch his delight in pulling the tabs and discovering the animals, and he learned his alphabet within a couple of weeks. He then started reading shortly afterward and I believe it was this book that sparked it all (and of course, his parents' attention!). And I hardly ever meet any children who have even heard of a vole!!

Wonderful!:
Just read the unhappy person's review....same review in two places...hmmm. I loved this book. Things today all have to pop and flash to keep kid's attention. Sometimes, I think, simple is best. This book is exactly what it says, an abc book.... I haven't seen a child yet who didn't want to lift the flaps again and again! My granddaughter won't go to sleep at night without this book!

Not colorful enough for a pre-schooler:
The ape that peeps out from behind the "a" is ant sized, features only the head, and is a dull grey in color. Similarly,very few of the, pop-ups, slides, or tabs reveal compelling colorful, well illustrated animals. I personally DID appreciate the black and white, uncluttered presentation of letters, but I DO feel that the peek out illustrations could have been improved upon. The ape, the bear etc, hiding behind the first two letters are badly drawn -- cartoonish is being too kind. Given my 13 mo old son's reaction to it, as opposed to his response to Chuck Murphy's amazing little pop-up books, I would say pass on it.

It is not worth $11.99:
If you are looking for a plain-jane alphabet book to teach your kids just letters with some boring little pullouts and flipovers. Or, if you believe in the theory of kids learning better with just simple black-n-white contrasting colors on a blank page. Get This! don't wait. I got this book after I saw the cover, thinking that the insides will be colorful backgrounds with animals hanging all over the letters; and more animals when you pull tabs or flip open covers. NO! here is what I got, colorful hardbound cover. Except for the inside of the front cover and inside of the back cover (which has one elephant each with a giraffe skin pattern sort of print motif as the background) Every single one of the 10 inside pages were blank-noir (yes, there are only 10 - because nobody in the publishing business ever counts the front and back cover as pages). White - no background of animals or colorful splashes. Solid black letters with pulltabs or flip-open covers of boring (yawn) animals... The publisher of this book should have mentioned the fact that they ripped you off by saving money on the ink. Yes, I am afraid that Amazon's little editoral synopsis's of "full color" applies only to the cardboard cover itself. I don't think I am expecting too much here. For $11.99 AND for this book to be in the 3 and up category. I am expecting some fun colors in the background of the letters. I got ripped! This is not a book for 3 and older kids. Maybe better for an extremely young infant before they have discovered the world of colors. 1 star only because it does have pull outs of animals and if we stare at the front cover long enough, we might get our $11.99 worth out of it...