Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
What's in Your Purse?
Illustrator: Nathalie Dion
Novelty book
For ages 4 to 6
Chronicle Books, 2014 ISBN: 978-1452117010
Every purse is different. Even if two purses look alike from the outside, what they contain will vary greatly depending on the personality and interests of the individual who owns the purse. Children love looking through purses and will, given the opportunity, have a grand time taking everything out of a purse and investigating every object that they find. Such investigations are not always looked upon with favor when the owner of the purse finds out what is going on, but now, thanks to this clever novelty title, children can look through a purse as much as they want to.
In all there are five purses to explore in this novelty book. Each one is unique, and when a child opens the purses they will not only reveal the contents of the purse, but they will also see some text that asks them a series of questions. The questions encourage the child to look at the contents of the purses closely and to use what they see in the artwork to answer the questions.
For example, in the first purse, which belongs to Mommy, we see a wallet, a mirror compact, a cell phone (that has a picture of Mommy on the screen), a business card, some keys, a pack of gum, a lipstick case, and a notebook. When we look inside the wallet we see Mommy’s driver’s license, and when we look inside the notebook we see Mommy’s calendar for the week. We are asked where Mommy works, what color her eyes are, and what she has to do on Wednesday. All the clues a child needs to answer these questions are in the artwork and under the lift-the-flaps that cover the money purse and the notebook.
The other purses in the title all have at least two lift-the-flap features, and children can look inside wallets, a cosmetic case, a diary, a photo album and more. Children will enjoy opening the purses, looking at the artwork, and lifting the flaps. The interactive questions will give them the opportunity to use their investigative skills.
