This book is adorable! I bought it for my 5 month old son. I love these kinds of books that have detailed illustrations that enable you to introduce young children to the joy of reading through the pictures and easy text featured. Peggy Rathmann has sooo much talent in the illustration end. If youre familiar with her other books (Good Night, Gorilla and Officer Buckle and Gloria), youll get a sneak peak at those characters in here but youve got to look closely. Her books are so fun that even my two-year old daughter enjoys them. She picked this book out to read today several times even though we bought it for her brother for Christmas. Good Night, Gorilla was a favorite of my daughters, but I think we both love this book even more.
My twins pull this book out every night for me to read, and its the one book I never tire of either. The detail of the illustrations is wonderful. Every page has so much going on, that we can read it over and over and find something new. However, there is also a lot of consistency. My girls love to show me the hamster kicking a ball on every page, and know all the quotes uttered by the baby hamster. The text is simple enough ("10 minutes til bedtime; 9 minutes til bedtime". . . )so that toddlers can read it to themselves, but the pictures are exciting enough to interest a much older child (or adult). I would recommend this book to anyone with children.
This wonderful book can be enjoy by toddlers and "Big" Kids. My 6 year old niece loved to "read" this book to her 2 year old cousin. The two year old would pick out hamesters and the 6 year old made up stories about them. Both children had so much fun "reading" this book together. The text is very simple - the pictures tell most of the story. And what stories they can tell! Have fun exploring out the pictures with your special little (or big!) one.
