Look, Look!: A High Contrast Board Book

by Peter Linenthal

Look, look! Children run, fish swim, stars shine . . . all for baby's eyes to see. This sturdy board book, full of high-contrast black-and-white cut-paper art perfect for staring at, is just the thing for the eyes of the youngest babies. A few words in curving red type on each spread describe the scenes -- a car races, a cat stretches, flowers bloom-- and extend the book's age appeal so that it will be fascinating to older babies, too. Striking and stylish, Look Look! is the ideal first board book for babies just beginning to look and learn. Peter Linenthal is an illustrator who has taught art in elementary schools for twenty years.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime, Art, Kids, Fiction, Animals

18 pages, Board Book

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Trina]

My baby LOVED the high contrast simple images in this book. He's now 1 and still grabs this one often to flip through.

[Walter_Reads]

Whoa. I was NOT ready for this. A linguistic and visual bonanza that left me reeling. I could feel my mind expanding with every page. Dad swore my soft spot was pulsing by the end.

I may have cried a little, but I NEED more.

Five stars, Mr. Linenthal. Five stars.

[Jon Nakapalau]

Wonderful boardbook for very small children that looks at the circle of life.

[Denise]

This book is straight up baby crack, my 4 month old baby grabby-hands for it if she can see from the rocking chair. The fish page is particularly something, her eyes get very wiiiiide at that page. I can't say much about the plot but it's certainly got what babies crave.

[Anna]

High contrast and unique visuals. Gets a bit boring for the parents.

[Steve Goulet]

Another formulaic offering from Linenthal

[Hayley Forrest]

Sorry, I can't deal with the demon child on the "children smile" page. Who on earth thought that was a good idea?

[Karen]

One of the few books the one year old in my life will sit through. I started doing actions for the pages to keep myself entertained while reading this one, and that just makes her love it all the more.

[Andrew]

Good book but felt like it was a little black and white.

[Hendrix]

The storyline wasn’t very compelling, but I really enjoyed the high contrast pictures! The sun and the children were my favorite pages.

[Alex Mayfield]

My newborn did indeed look though this baby can’t verbally confirm, they seemed engaged.

PS - this baby is gonna help me crush my reading goal

[Alice Austin]

Fish. Swim.

[DJ]

Newborns are born without the ability to see clearly or color. Prior my son being born I read up on the need to have high contrast books for the first few months. So naturally, when he started to be awake more (vs. sleeping all the time due to being in NICU), this was the first books I read to him when I brought him home. You can see how his eyes are tracking the contrast. I also recommend looking at high contrast videos, and he liked that a lot as well.

As he grew a little older and grasping for things more, this book and "Hello, Animals!" are the books that I hand over to him and he can flip through himself. He learned how to turn the page with these books as it's nice and thick. I thought that was kind of cool to interact with my son by telling about what he's seeing. The words are SUPER short, but if you explain what the he's looking at such as, "The sun has eyes *points the eyes*, but they don't really have eyes", etc, it stretches out the story time. He learned how to turn the page at around 3 months.

[Jared]

A cat stretches!

[Allison Roy]

Decided I’m going to review/add books my baby and I read together too. Books are BOOKS, and sons of them have better storylines/inc than many easy to read adult books, believe me.

Ok so, Look! look! We revisited again last night. My son is one now but this was in heavy rotation was he was a few months old because, you know, HIGH CONTRAST IMAGES FOR BAD BABY VISION.

It’s stimulation for their brains n sh*t. So basically taking my baby on a trip, if you will,

I the bold images, bold words with pops of red.

Last night, El prob would have given it a 7/10.

(We got this one from Dolly Partons Imagination Library)

[Libby Hill]

This board book is made for babies 0-1 year old. The black and white high contrast supposedly is easier for babies who are still developing eye sight to process. Our 4 month old loves it. I like prepping it up on the ground for him to look at during tummy time. It’s also a fun one for the bigger kids to “read” with him because the text is limited and easily memorized. Definitely one I’d recommend for your baby’s nursery.

[Kylara Jensen]

Board Book for newborns.

An ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE! This should be every newborn's first book.

We got this when Everett was about 6 weeks and she was just starting to follow images with her eyes.

The black and white contrasting pages make this super fun for young babies to look at. The black, white and red is supposed to stimulate their brains.

Everett's favorite image is the cat!!

[Beyondthebookends]

The simple text mixed with Black and White high contrast photos also makes this a great book to read off the bat. My boys use to point and stare at each image as I repeated over and over again what they were seeing.

More reviews at www.beyondthebookends.com

[Ashley Register]

This book is appropriate for infants and toddlers. I love the black and white contrast pictures. This is very appealing to infants in that they can't see colors very well, but still catches their eye. Also would be great for toddlers when they start identifying objects like fish and car.

[Christine]

This was the first book we got from Dolly's free literacy program & I initially found it pretty unassuming. But wow did my son love it right off the bat. For awhile it was the only boardbook he'd read & we have yet to put it down.

[Reading to George]

Did I read this to by baby approximately 100 times despite the one star rating?? YES. Yes, I did. Did I complain about the image of the crescent moon having stars in front of it during all of those readings? Also, yes. The children smiling also low key freak me out.

[Talieh Rohani]

A great book for your little ones. My son enjoyed this book since he was 1 months old.

[Mckinley]

black and white

[Orion Kopf]

Perfect for babies with nice high contrast pictures and simple words

[Debbie]

Great for the first few weeks when she can’t see color

[Becky]

Margaret's April book--the first official book (besides the nine books I got for a baby shower--get it . . . nine months before her b-day). She LOVES staring at the pictures in this book.

[Eleanor]

The sun makes me laugh and I like the pictures. It's a bit boring for mummy

[Margie]

What's black and white and red all over? This very basic book for the very young. To read aloud or just to gaze at the pictures.

[Amy]

This was Matty's first book; he really liked the fish page. We passed along the book to Gretchen at her baby shower for her daughter Nora.

[Julia Smith]

This was one of two high-contrast b&w books we got when Crush was first born, and she still likes to look at it with me more than a year later. Effective, simple, quiet, sweet.