Review: Flaptastic Sizes

Find at Amazon.com
Find at Amazon.ca

Title: Flaptastic Sizes
Author/Illustrator: See publisher
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Publishing
Year: 2009
ISBN: 978-0756654511
Format: Board book
Pages: 12
Age Range: Baby, Toddler
Kid Love Factor: 3.5/5
Adult Sanity Factor: 2/5

Flaptastic Sizes is a lift-the-flap book that teaches, well, sizes.  Surprise!  Didn't see that coming, did you?

Each page spread has a picture and a size descriptor, and then the flap can be lifted and an opposing descriptor and picture is seen.  Kids learn that daisies are short while sunflowers are tall, elephants are big while chicks are small,, paint brushes can be wide or narrow, and acorns are tiny while trees are enormous.  Lots of fun vocabulary-stretching words to be had here.  It’s awesome having your toddler describe something as “Eeee-no-muss”.

My one real peeve is the set of Russian dolls at the end. They’re lovely, of course, as Russian dolls tend to be.  The problem is that there are seven of them and they’re labelled Biggest, Bigger, Big, Middle, Small, Smaller, Tiny.  Seriously?  Tiny? They couldn’t finish that off symmetrically with ‘smallest’ instead of ‘tiny’?  And shouldn't middle be medium? Gah!

My nearly compulsive desire for linguistic order aside, Boo was fond of the book, though he seems to be outgrowing it now.  He especially loves the flowers; we were often treated to top-of-his-lungs exclamations of “Sunflower!”  and eventually, once we’d read Lemons Are Not Red,  “Sunflower is not short! Sunflower is tall. Daisies are short!”   

My other peeve is that the acorn described as tiny is in fact pictured at approximately 200% of an actual acorn's size, but I find that quite bearable compared to the issue with the dolls.  Yes, sometimes my quibbles are ridiculous even to myself...

Autism Spectrum Bonus: As with neurotypical children, Flaptastic Sizes might help to get the concept of quantifier adjectives across.  The lift-the-flap design may encourage kids who are usually less than eager to participate to follow their curiosity and check out what’s underneath.  For very young kids or those with fine motor skill delays, the multiple directions in which the pages open may provide an interesting challenge.

Bottom Line:

Good and Bad.

Links:

Flaptastic Sizes at Amazon.ca

Flaptastic Sizes at Amazon.com