Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
by Bill Martin, Jr.
illustrated by Eric Carle

What it's about:
This board book is a collection of simple illustrations showing a variety of animals. Each animal is a different color. The story repeats a pattern where each animal "sees" the next animal until the goldfish sees the teacher, the teacher sees the children, and the children see everyone else.

Why we like it:
My son loves the brightly colored animals on the white background of each page. He particularly likes looking at the last page which shows all of the animals and the teacher. This is the first book that he "read" to himself as a young baby. He would sit in his car seat turning the pages, gazing at the colorful pictures, and talking to the animals.

I enjoy reading this story to my son because it is a great teaching tool. First we talked about the names of the animals. Then we talked about the sound each animal makes. Now, we are focusing on the names of the colors. The sing-song phrasing of the story makes it fun to read as well.

Suggested Age Range:
We received a copy of this popular story before my son was born, so it was one of the first books we read to him. He has shown an interest in the pictures for as long as I can remember. He even learned how to turn pages with this book. At 17 months, he just recently started to lose interest in the story. I actually doubt that he is too old for it. We've probably just read it so much that he is finally tired of it!

Additional Details:
Copyright 1967
Henry Holt and Company
ISBN 978-0-8050-4790-5
$7.95