Up & Down

Recommended for beginning readers who are careful with the flaps, though we received it as a baby shower gift and our has now survived two kids!

I honestly haven't even read this book yet, so this is more of a review of the construction of the book. The reason I haven't read it yet is because all the flaps are made of regular paper, which my 2 year old will rip off the book in one sitting. Not sure if I missed the note about this detail, but this one's going to have to sit on the shelf for a while before we can dive into it.

This first U.S. edition sports a new cover but the clever use of flaps to show opposites is still the same as the earlier British picture book. The only care with this book is to make sure you do not give it to a child too young. Some children love to rip the flaps off the pages and these flaps will come off with a little help. Therefore, make sure the youngster will carefully or gently flip the flaps rather than handle them with a ripping motion. Otherwise you'll love this cute penguin and his underwater adventures.Book provided by publisher.

The third book is Up & Down: a lift-the-flap book by Britta Teckentrup. And this is so fun! It's penguins! One penguin separated by an iceberg to another and they're trying to get to one another. And the lift-the-flaps are just amazing! You're flipping quarter sheets of paper that they go from left to right and then end up going diagonal across the page, until they become entire entire page within a spread. I can't even really explain it to you. You'll have to check it out for yourself. But the penguin is going up and down and through he ocean and around different animals to get to his partner. And it is just beautiful. It's a beautiful work of art, reminding us all why picture books in this medium work so well. To be hands-on. To be in print. It's just lovely. I see myself sharing this with lots and lots of other people. I know my son and I have already enjoyed it an awful lot already.This review appears on an episode of the “Best Book Ever [this week]” segment of the Let’s Get Busy podcast. Check out the original post here: http://lgbpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-best-book-ever-this-week-january-4.html

UP & DOWN is a lift-the-flap book about a penguin in search of his friend. LITTLE PENGUIN misses his friend very much and sets out on a journey to find her. He swims above some jellyfish in the ocean and through a dark tunnel and eventually climbs a snow-covered hill. UP & DOWN is a book about opposites and as the reader reads each page, children can lift up a flap and see the opposite of where Little Penguin was last at, e.g. over an orca's tail and under her belly. I liked UP & DOWN because it involves penguins. The book is recommended for children 2-5.

Cute book!