Grow Up!

My husband abhors this book because he thinks the pictures are frightening. The cat on the first page with the orange eyes in particular. Besides that, the concept is great.

Good Book!

We love all of the books from this author, but this one is my baby’s favorite. Awesome for working on animal sounds and the pages are the perfect size for babies to turn independently! He really loved it from about 5-7 months.

I purchased this book because my daughter LOVES Nina Laden's "Peek-a-Who?" book, and I thought we would explore other books by this author, hopping to reproduce the same joy my daughter has with Peek-a-who. Sadly, it's just not as good. It's not a bad book, but it has some room for improvement.Pros:- cut out pages are easy to turn by little hands- part of the adult animal is revealed through the cutout in an artistic way- children learn the names for baby and adult animals, insects, birds, amphibians, plants, and humans - great varietyCons:- the art has a lot of black flecks in it and is a bit stylized. I realize this is the style of the illustrator/author, but it kind of gets in the way of portraying an iconic image of the object in a way that would be easily recognizable to a child. For example the cat in order to have the fish in the bowl turn into its eyes is positioned face forward with its large round body behind. It's just a little weird and looks a bit menacing. The puppy's eye doesn't quite match up with the dog's eye in the cut out, which makes it look a bit weird or off.- the colors aren't very bright, kind of dark and muddied. Great for the tadpole/frog pic, but disappointing for rest of the book. For example, the kitten-cat pages are like a burnt sienna/ dark orangey color. All the pages have dark colors (dark blue, dark purple, dark green, etc.)- the text isn't as engaging. A kitten grows up to be a cat. A puppy grows up to be a dog.. A [blank] grows up to be a [blank]. And on, and on. There is rhyme - (dog-frog, tree-me) but it's not great. As much as I try to read this book with enthusiasm and throw in some of the animal sounds, (I've yet to figure out a sound for tree, so things get awkward and silent at that part), I find reading this book tedious and a bit boring.Is it a terrible book? No. I think it will be a great learning tool as my daughter gets older (she's 13 months now). However, it's not a great book, and certainly a far cry from the infinitely entertaining Peek-a-Who.

Delivered fast. At first my son (who has then, just turned 10 months) was a little creeped out with the pictures but after we got through the entire book, i knew it was a hit. He would always get this for story time (next in line is peek-a-who). This must be his favorite book as of present. This is a very cute book with holes. A kitten grows up to be a...(turn the page)cat, and so on.. The only complaint and only reason i am not giving this a five star is that, we got a very bad mirror. The one on the last page where "baby grows up to be..me". Such a pity really because my son adores this book and the peek-a-who we purchased has a clear shatter proof mirror in the end which is what i am expecting with this one as well. I might be the only unfortunate one to get a defective one and even more unfortunate that i find returns such a bother. My son has worn it out (he flips through the book alone) as it is perfect for his little hands. It's been a month and it is still a favorite but he skips the last part because he cannot see himself unlike when reading peek-a-who where he is excited and expectant of seeing himself in the end.