Book Review: Can You Say It, Too? Tweet! Tweet!

We live in the Big City, and want to give our hard of hearing daughter plenty of opportunities to experience the wonders of nature.

Fortunately, New York City has fantastic parks where you can experience quiet moments of peace and tranquility. (And often wonderful live music and a hot dog!)

We adore taking our 14-month old daughter to local parks, watching tree leaves in the wind with her, and touching tree trunks together.

And of course... the birds!

This is a gorgeous lift-the-flap board book that gently introduces baby to some common—and uncommon!—birds and their sounds.

We stumbled upon Can You Say It, Too? Tweet! Tweet! at our local library a few months ago. We've clicked the "renew" button on the New York Public Library website every few weeks since then.

Last week, we finally caved in and bought a copy.

Can You Say It, Too? Tweet! Tweet!

This is a gorgeous 10-page (5 spreads) lift-the-flap board book that gently introduces baby to some common—and uncommon!—birds and their sounds.

The artwork is vibrant and cute. Think of...

• a lush pink cherry tree with a crawling caterpillar and a sparrow on a branch
• a backyard birdhouse with a dove coo-ing
• a forest pine tree with busy squirrels and a woodpecker
• city rooftops with a crow CAW-CAWing!
• let's not forget the grand finale—a regal peacock with an extra flap behind him hiding tiny baby peacocks. PEEP! PEEP! PEEP!

We like the elegant minimal text. It's perfect for reading to a baby or toddler. It has simple and clear questions like, "Who's that beside the flowers?"

It's also a quick read—just five spreads. Perfect before bedtime!

Other parts of the book fit right in with our LSL strategies.

• The flaps are perfect for an Auditory First strategy. "Caw Caw Caw! I hear a crow! Can you lift the flap?"
• The text is full of location words, like "beside," "behind," and "above."
• The images cover 2-page spreads, so it's easy to refer to the next page's scene without distraction.
• Each page focuses on a particular bird sound and reinforces it with repetition—Caw! Caw!, Coo! Coo!

It's a lift-the-flap book, so of course will see the usual wear and tear from a toddler. The flaps are large and sturdy. We'll sure ours up with some clear tape once the book becomes well loved. The covers and pages are thick board book material. That's great for babies learning to turn the pages on their own.

Nosy Crow publishes other similar bird-themed lift-the-flap books—Quack! Quack! and Cheep! Cheep!

We're hooked. More reviews coming soon!