Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Draw and Discover: Push, Pull, Empty, Full
Paper Engineer: Activity Book
For ages 5 to 7
Laurence King Publishing, 2017 ISBN: 978-1780679310
Often the best way to learn, at just about any age, is to learn through doing something. We learn how to draw by drawing, and learn about the fundamentals of music by playing a musical instrument. Similarly we learn our ABC’s and numbers by playing games and singing songs.
For this book the author has created many pages of activities to help children learn their opposites. The artwork shows children what each opposite word means. They can then have an interactive experience by coloring in the artwork and adding drawn elements to the illustrations to complete them, or to add to them.
For example, in the first spread we see Duck, who is pushing a wheelbarrow, and we are invited to draw what is in the wheelbarrow. In the next spread we meet the word that is the opposite of push: pull. Here Bear is pulling his kite string. The problem is that his kite is missing and so we are asked to complete the picture.
Next we see Duck again. The poor bird, who is looking rather upset, is sitting in an empty bathtub. Thankfully we can do something about this situation and we can fill it up by adding water to the drawing so that Duck can have a bath.
Many other familiar opposite pairs follow, including up and down, back and front, full and empty, long and short. Some are repeated, to make sure that the concept being presented is fully understood. Best of all, many of the drawings are amusing and tell a little story that children will enjoy interacting with.
This book is the kind of title that children will enjoy exploring for hours at a time. There is so much to do, and you never quite know what is going to come up next.
