I Love You Best. Cindy Bracken. 2012. 16 pages. [Source: personal copy.]
I picked up I Love You Best because it was a free daily deal on Amazon. While I found it enjoyable, it’s not too remarkable. There’s nothing technically wrong with it, but it lacks a wow factor for me.
I Love You Best highlights different animals and what they love, whether it’s their habitat, fellow animals, foods, or more. It is definitely a shorter read, but not so short that it’s over before you’re able to get into it. Considering the content and structure, I found it to be well-done. I enjoyed the ability to have peripheral conversations about the content of this story. Since it discusses various animal homes or environments and different animal-related terms (e.g. foal, cud), it was natural to stop and ask whether my reader knew what certain words meant if she didn’t ask me herself.
The illustrations are computer animated, but bright and colorful; they strike a balance between simplicity and detail. The illustrations also feature different drawing styles, so the variety there is unusual and refreshing. Some are more detailed than others, which I think lends well to the different animals on each page.
This would be a great book for a new reader to practice independent reading. The sentences are simple, but feature a wide enough array of words that there’s still a challenge. There is also a rhyme scheme for each set of pages, so even if you have a new reader encountering unfamiliar words, there is a good chance they can use content clues to figure out the pronunciation.
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