My Very First Book of Food was given to me by Sarah, who works with and appreciates good food. Looking at just the front cover, I originally thought it would be a book about making healthy food choices, perhaps even a small cookbook of sorts.
The back cover of the book was more instructive showing me that the book was instead about animals and what they eat. The child and adult would match the animals to their preferred food.
In fact, the instructions inside to do so are the only words in the whole book.
I like the concept a lot, and yet I think it could be a bit confusing. For example, depending on what kind of bear it is, they would happily eat fish and many would even eat an apple (the page the animal lines up with on its actual flip page) though that’s not their first choice.
The elephant is meant to be paired with peanuts, yet one would might eat grass as well, the choice on the flip page it’s on.
However, others clearly don’t match up with their flip page choice such as the mouse and the fish.
This animal, which I believe to be a seal (though it could be a sea lion, maybe even an otter) is one that could benefit with the animal name next to it, though the book does not do so.
My assumption is that the author meant each animal to have only one correct answe like the bear/honey example on the cover. I have no way of knowing as there is no answer key. Perhaps the fact that animals can eat more than one type of food was meant to be a discussion point, yet I don’t think so. So while the book is very clever, the lack of an answer key and the fact that the animals don’t have a name attached to them also, are things I’d recommend changing in future editions.
Rating – four baby booties out of five
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 