Official Review: What Does Little Glenn See at The Park?

[Amheiser]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "What Does Little Glenn See at The Park?" by Olympia Snyder.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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What Does Little Glenn See at the Park? Things that begin with the letter B, is a preschool storybook written by Olympia Snyder and illustrated by Mike Motz. The story is about Little Glenn’s walk in the park with his mother. As they stroll through the park, they come upon different objects that Little Glenn is curious about so he points to them and his mother tells him what the objects are called. Then Little Glenn repeats what she says.

The story is very simple; it’s about things that start with the letter B. The sentences on each page are very similar to the sentences on the previous page, but instead include a new object being discussed. This repetition and simplicity make it easy for a child to learn to read.

The illustrations in this book take the story to another level. They are very colorful and include other activities that are going on at the park around Little Glenn and his mother’s walk. These illustrations can lead to imaginative discussions about all the other activities at the park. They could also help the child learn to observe things with questions like, “What colors are the trees?” At the end of the book are the objects that the child has seen that start with the letter B. They are hidden in pictures so the child has to search for them, also helping a child learn observation skills.

I think this book has lots of learning opportunities for a child who is preschool age or younger. It would be a good book for an older reader to share with a child, but I think it could also be used as a first reader by a child reading alone. The vocabulary is simple and there are sentence repetitions to aid in learning to read. It’s also good as a first reader because there are very few words on each page, and being only ten pages long the book is short enough for a child’s attention span.

This story was only about a few objects that start with the letter B. It is a good start for a child learning the sound of the letter B as a precursor to learning to read. I didn’t see anything about the author writing more books about other letters of the alphabet, but I imagine that the author could do a series about other letters in the same manner as this book. These types of books could all be very helpful for a child learning to read.

There are two things that could be problems with the book. One is that it “tells” rather than “shows.” For example it starts with, “Glenn gets up very early. He runs to find his mother. She is in the kitchen cooking.” For a short, simple first-reader, I don’t think this is a big problem. There are enough things going on in the book to keep a child interested. The other potential problem lies in the illustration. The characters are made to be very friendly and colorful, but they aren’t very engaging. I don’t think this would make much difference to a young child, but they do not have the stylistic appeal of classics like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” or “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

This book is of almost the same caliber as the majority of children’s books currently available; however, I would not consider it to be exceptional. While this book may be acceptable for very young children, I think that elaborating on the stories and enhancing the appeal of the illustrations would help to improve it.

I would rate this book 3 out of 4 stars, and I would recommend it to parents of children preschool age or younger. It’s a nice book with a simple story supported by simple illustrations.

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What Does Little Glenn See at The Park?
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[LivreAmour217]

Great review! You did a nice job of pointing out the book's shortcomings in a way that didn't detract from its strong points. This sounds like a cute book for little children.

[Amheiser]

It's hard to know which books small children are going to be interested in unless you can actually read the book with a small child. This book reminds me of one that I read with my children when they were very young and they loved it because there is so much going on in the book besides the story. The illustrations can lead to lots of discussion about all the other activities going on at the park and my children enjoyed making up their own stories about the pictures. Thank you for your positive comments about this review.

[Rachaelamb1]

Great review! I agree it is hard to know if your child is going to love of hate a book without reading it to them! There are some books my daughter loves that I just can't understand why and others that I would like to read to her but she has no interest. This sounds like a cute book though.

[HalcyonFlower]

The combination of educational & entertaining is the best, I feel. Thanks for the review - it's definitely one I might pick up for my niece and nephew since they're at that age for learning more refined observation skills.

[literarycat]

This seems like the perfect gift for a few of my friends with little ones. Thanks for a great review.

[Amheiser]

Great review! I agree it is hard to know if your child is going to love of hate a book without reading it to them! There are some books my daughter loves that I just can't understand why and others that I would like to read to her but she has no interest. This sounds like a cute book though.

I guess how a child feels about a book might depend on what that child is interested in, but I think there is more to it than just that. It would be interesting to ask a child what they like about the book and what they don't like. Thank you for commenting on my review.

-- 04 Feb 2016, 15:21 --

This seems like the perfect gift for a few of my friends with little ones. Thanks for a great review.

Thank you for commenting on my review. I like the idea of giving books as gifts, especially to very young children since I think that reading is such an important thing to learn. You can never start introducing books too early in a child's life.

-- 04 Feb 2016, 17:45 --

The combination of educational & entertaining is the best, I feel. Thanks for the review - it's definitely one I might pick up for my niece and nephew since they're at that age for learning more refined observation skills.

I agree with you that a combination of education and entertainment for a story for a child is important. If very young children can find out that learning can also be fun, it will surely benefit them to know that later in life. I liked how the book had sort of a little quiz at the end of spotting the hidden pictures of the objects they had seen. It was an extra little bonus for refining observation skills. Congratulations to the author for putting together such a nice little book. Thank you for commenting on my review.

[kimmyschemy06]

Sounds like a helpful book for children, parents and teachers. Great review!

[bookowlie]

Nice, balanced review! You were able to give constructive criticism while still pointing out the positive parts of the book. You hit the nail on the head - having engaging illustrations is such an important part of a book for younger children.