cute little book, uses rhyming. a spin off of little miss muffet. discusses different animals having a party with miss muffet.
1 book

Let me begin by saying they have got the age range wrong. I think any child 5 and under would enjoy this book. (My eldest just turned 5 and she certainly likes it.) The artwork is colorful and pleasant and as you turn the pages the pictures become increasingly dense with added characters and action. Certainly there is enough activity to keep older children occupied. And because of the repetitiveness they might even *read* it themselves.

We adore this book. It has humor and warmth and it extends the old short rhyme with an even better story. In this version, Little Miss Muffett's spider doesn't chase her away, instead he asks her to stay. Then come lemurs with streamers, magpies with bowties, foxes with boxes, pussycats with partyhats, poodles with oodles of noodles, bears with chairs, puffins with muffins, gibbons with ribbons and crocodiles with 10 greedy smiles. But to what end? Surprise! It's a birthday party.

There is so much to this book. It teaches counting and rhyming. It introduces animals that are not typical in young children's' reading: puffins, lemurs and gibbons. For my children, it elicited in them the desire to memorize the poem (it was so much fun). To me this indicates that they are learning to love literature and reading.

I think it would make a great birthday gift, but don't buy it just for that. Think of all that your child could learn.

Pam T
mom and reviewer for www.BooksForKids-reviews.com ( )