First Steps: Letters, Numbers, Colors, Opposites

by John Burningham

An illustrated introduction to the letters of the alphabet, the numbers one to ten, basic colors, and opposites

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 1994

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bur...

Married to Helen Oxenbury They have one son and two daughters.

John Burningham was born in 1936 in Farnham, Surrey, and attended the alternative school, Summerhill. In 1954 he spent two years travelling through Italy, Yugoslavia and Israel, working at a variety of jobs.

From 1956-1959, he studied at the Central School of Art, after which he designed posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. He also spent a year on an animated puppet film in the Middle East. He then became a writer and illustrator of children's books, his first book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers (1963) winning the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963, an achievement he repeated with Mr Gumpy's Outing (1970).

Since then, he has written and illustrated many children's books. He is also a freelance designer of murals, exhibitions models, magazine illustrations and advertisements.

Reviews

[Nabeela Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a lovely book that introduces children to letters, numbers, colours and opposites in a clear and visual way, easy for them to understand, especially if they're very young and just dipping into these brilliant concepts!

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish this title had been published when my children were young as it covers letters, numbers, colors, and opposites. And oh, yes, those beautiful Wildsmith illustrations. My least liked section was the counting as the illustrations were busy, the children depicted were small against a busy background. The opposite section was very good, large uncluttered illustrations.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Steps: Letters, Numbers, Colors, Opposites by John Burningham is an illustrated introduction to the letters of the alphabet, the numbers one to ten, basic colors, & selected opposites.

Burningham's lively illustrations were done in colored inks and colored pencils. The same young boy is featured in each example of letters, numbers, colors, and opposites. My favorite images are duck, goat, lion, snake, zebra, tiger (numbers), blue, black, dry / wet, light / heavy, slow / fast, big / little, and open / shut.

Letters are shown in lower case and are mostly animals, except for flowers, ice cream, juggler, queen, umbrella, violin, & xylophone. All eight color words are written out in the appropriate shade. Eleven opposite pairs are portrayed. This 42 page concept book is appealing and well conceived. First Steps is recommended for school and public library collections.

For ages 2 to 5, concepts, letters, numbers, colors, opposites, and fans of John Burningham.

[Brandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky illustrations depict a mother lode of concepts--numbers, opposites, colors, letters--in this witty picture book.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very simple concepts for very young children.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the four sections, the numbers is the best.