If you expecting typical Mo Willems, with humor and wit, Pigeon or Elephant and Piggie.....this isn't going to be it. If you are expecting a typical storytime text....this isn't it.

However, what I do like about this book is the vividness of the colors. Audrey kept staring at the pages. They are perfect for where she is in her stage of development right now. So I enjoyed this book for that.

Additionally, I am reminded why picture books are excellent ways to expose children to new words. There were some "ten dollar words" (as my mom used to say) in this book. I look forward to sharing them with Audrey when she is older. ( )

The publisher recommended age/grade for this is 0- 2 and Preschool. I hope that somewhere there are scientists studying perception and sitting this book in front of children that age and asking them what they see, or at least those old enough to talk. We adults, after all, having some training in our culture's notion of perception. If they were shown the "soft" painting and asked if it was soft, would they pat the book and say that it is hard? Do they understand what the words mean? Piaget concluded from his experiments that small children do not understand the concept of "more." Another study concluded that they (and chimps) understand if candy is involved.

I have read that some scientists made a triangle out of three sticks and went around the world asking people what they see. Some of them said "three sticks," and could not be convinced that there is anything special about the arrangement. Some cultures have only two words for colors "black" and "white", perhaps better called "dark" and "light." Some scholars argued that since they only have two words for color, that is all that they perceive: e.g. navy and black would look the same to them. Other researchers gave the people paint chips and asked them to arrange them. They claim that the people do see the distinctions, they've just never bothered to name them.

I would have liked the opposite pictures to be on facing pages; I think that contrast would be very effective.

I anxiously await the study. Meanwhile, it might be helpful in teaching older children that conventions of abstraction, even if younger children don't see them, ( )

This book is meant for I think all age groups! It could be beneficial to K-12, and even adults. This book opens the mind to colors, shapes, and how we personally perceive art. Most of the art in this book is very simple, but I could imagine that many people would have a different description or feeling for each piece. It provides descriptive words for each picture, and I think this book would be very beneficial to use when talking to students about color, feelings in relation to color/art, and different descriptive words. ( )

https://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2021/04/15/review-of-the-day-opposites-ab... ( )