Monday, November 19, 2012

Baby Animals eBook




Genre:  Non-fiction
Text: Mariah Bear & Sonia Vallabh
Picture Research:  Brandi Valenza
Voice Over:   Robyn Ginsburg Braverman
EPUB ISBN 978-1-616-28-347-6
Quadrum Ltd.  2007
“From the top of the tree to the bottom of the sea, animals are everywhere—and every one of them starts out as a baby!” (p. 66).  Bear and Vallabh’s nonfiction eBook, Baby Animals, is indeed true to its title.  
Over the course of sixty-six pages a wide variety of baby animals from all geographical regions are introduced and snippets of facts are sprinkled liberally throughout.  This book is a good starting point to introduce animals but I would have liked to see a few more specific facts about the animals that were awarded a two-page layout in this book.   

 This eBook originally caught my attention for a few  different reasons, the first reason was because it was a free download from the app store for my iPad, the second reason, it featured baby animals which is my toddler daughter’s current infatuation.  Now, I am always leery of free apps and eBooks as they tend to lack in quality or have so many ads that it detracts from the experience.  I was pleasantly surprised that the reader is not inundated with pop up ads throughout this title.  The text is simple, but accurate and appropriate for a primary audience and Robyn Ginsburg Braverman provides a clear voice-over for the read along option, albeit I found the tempo lagging slightly but novice readers following along may find this speed helpful.  There are 60 other eBook titles to choose from featuring bugs, cars, trucks, underwater animals and more.  While I wouldn’t recommend this title for in-school use to support the curriculum, it is a lovely book to share with a child aged 15 months-4 years of age for the beautiful photography.

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