David A. Carter is a master paper engineer and creator of the Bugs series, which has sold more than 6 million copies. Also the author and illustrator of the critically acclaimed Color series, featuring One Red Dot, Blue 2, 600 Black Spots, Yellow Square, and White Noise, he lives in Auburn, California, with his wife and two daughters.
Time Machine Cute but not one of your tougher lift the flap books..., February 25, 2005
This is an attractive book that combines lift-the-flaps with textures. The combination is appealing to my young toddlers, but I have to say that it is not the sort of book I leave out for them to play with unsupervised. I've had others constructed like it and the flaps just don't stay attached (if you know what I mean).
The story begins when an adorable baby mouse in diapers starts to seek his friends: a pink salamander behind a bowl of smooth cherries; a brown mole behind a pot filled with scratchy sand; a butterfly behind silky flowers; and a black skunk behind a watering can of shiny water. The story ends when his friends seek him and find him behind a rough basket.
These are all elements that small people can relate to and I would say that if you are looking for a sweet non-Barney, non-commercial kind of gift that it would be a good choice.
I used this cute lift-the-flap book as a participation story for a mice-themed bilingual story time program.
In this book, Little Mouse and his friends play hide-and-seek; children are encouraged to identify the items each animal is hiding behind/under. For example, the butterfly is hiding behind some flowers. What I liked about this story is that it included more complex words, like flower pot and watering can, that some children might not know.