Richard Scarry's Best First Book Ever

I don't agree with the reviewer that says this book is too cluttered. The book is a little big and an unsupervised toddler will destroy it quickly, but it is a fabulous, I mean FABULOUS book particularly for the price. Sure there are lots of things on each page, but I think the depth is just wonderful. The pages that are "white" with lots of things are wonderful. For example one page is a market full of different fruits and vegetables, meats, canned items, shipping carts. Another page forces you to turn the book sideways and a huge cat with all the body parts labeled takes up both pages. Another page is a doctor's office. Another page has vehicles. Another page has the alphabet. Another page is full of water craft. Another page is a farm complete with vegetable fields and several different types of machinery. Another page has the months of the year with seasonal drawings. We don't pick this book up and read it front to rear, rather we open a few random pages and marvel at Richard Scarry's mind!I have bought over 100 children's books the last two years and this is at the top of my list. The book is packed with pages with illustrations that are up and beyond the average child's illustrated book. Richard Scarry was a wonderful artist with a keen understanding of children's minds.Every single page has between ten and thirty items in context that my child is familiar with or we have experienced. My child stares at the pages longer than any other book and seems to just love this book.I just checked the Amazon price and I can't believe how little it costs compared to the other books I've bought.

I used to read Richard Scarry's books as a kid and when I came across this on Amazon I just had to buy it for my son. It doesn't really have a story line, but a bunch of pictures about everyday things that you can talk about with your child and identify together, my son almost always picks this book as his "goodnight book" that he "reads" alone for 10 minutes before he goes to sleep. There are pictures of the city with grocery stores, a barber shop, a butcher, a florist etc. There are pictures of the inside of a house so you can identify the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc and most of the items typically inside them. Different faces of emotions, names of articles of clothing, names of foods and utensils used for cooking/eating....I could go on and on, but this is a great book for learning new words. I would definitely buy this again for a childs 1st or 2nd birthday present!!

For years Richard Scarry has been entertaining and educating children with his charming, fun, and entertaining books. In "Richard Scarry's Best First Book Ever!" kids learn about a huge variety of things from colors and counting to good manners and important features of various locations and situations such as "A Visit to the Doctor," "At the Harbor," and The Railroad Station."The amount of terrain covered is enormous, and it really is a great first book for kids who are starting to use pictures as vocabulary builders and are initially learning to read. The illustrations are charming and the principal characters of Huckle and Lowly are positive for impressionable children (note particularly the lessons on manners and housework.) The book can be opened anywhere and please kids; the framing device of a day in the life of the cat family (starting logically with waking up in the morning) works very well, and the side trips to various locales are well selected and informative.This is a great book for young readers, and I recommend it enthusiastically.

Our family has been growing up with Richard Scarry for generations. It's nice to continue the tradition.

Until recently, I had never heard of Richard Scarry, but my wife grew up reading his books. So, she decided that Scarry's "Best First Book Ever!" would be an appropriate Christmas gift for our book-loving almost-2-year-old daughter. Well, my wife certainly nailed this gift recommendation.Our daughter can't get enough of this book, requesting that we read it several times every day. And there is enough content in the book to last us that many daily readings without getting overly repetitive and boring. The book consists of a number of different scenes in the life of a family of cats, including driving into town, cleaning the house, shopping for groceries, playing in the school playground, stopping at a railroad crossing, landscaping outside their house, preparing meals, and many others. If we read every word and looked at every picture, I'm sure it would take well over an hour to read, but since it doesn't have a plot-driven story connecting one page to the next, we can read the book at whatever pace we like. Sometimes, we spend a lot of time on just a few pages, looking at all of the pictures and reading through the many different words and descriptions. Other times, we go through every single page but only spend a few seconds glancing at each page. Truly, no reading has been quite the same, and the breadth of content is what makes this book so utterly unique.Initially, I was overwhelmed by this book. But now understanding that we can experience it differently each time (according to our daughter's preferences or our time constraints), I am fully on board. She loves it, and we do, too, and I suspect that Richard Scarry will enter the short list of our favorite authors.

My favorite book from childhood (I am now forty) was "Is this the house of mistress mouse?" by Richard Scarry. I found a copy of it after having my baby. Then found out Richard Scarry has lots of books with little animals and sweet illustrations! My baby is almost two and I want to encourage a love of reading in him too. Beyond my reading to him, he loves to flip through the pages in this book and look at the pictures, pointing and saying things that I cant understand, except "ki ki". So far I will call this a success! The drawings have a unique style and I just feel happier looking at them. This book gives lots of illustrations for learning a lot of vocabulary, making it fun!

My 3.5 year old LOVES all of the Richard Scarry books (I loved them when I was a kid too!)

Children learn a lot from these book. Best quality. Hard bound cover. Beautiful illustrations.

Los libros de Richar Scarry son perfectos para niños pequeños. Les encantan los dibujos y les hacen muchísima gracia

My son asks me to read this book every night before going to bed. He likes pointing some random things he recognizes. It’s good for learning new words.

Die Bücher von Richard Scarry's sind allesamt sehr anschaulich. Für den ersten Zugang zu englischen Sprache eignet sich das Best First Book Ever sehr. Im Vergleich zu den anderen Büchern ist es nicht ganz so "voll" und somit auch für kleinere Kinder geeignet.