Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten! and Let's Get Ready for First Grade! are by Linda Desimowich and Stacey Kannenberg and were sent to me to review this past week. As a preschool teacher (okay administrator-turned-trainer- in-two-days, but I did get here from somewhere right!?!) I was anxious to get these books. I didn't know what to expect. So many people try and create a book that does it all for the children. Let's cram everything they need learn in a year into one book, right? Well, these books do that, but in a very good way. I like them.
My favorite thing? The pages are sturdy and slick! When a child write in it with a crayon or marker (and they probably will) it is real easy to wipe off. (I don't know that from me doing it, I know that from other books made out of this material). And actually, in both books, there are places in the book made just for writing in. I personally would use a dry erase marker for easier clean up, but that's up to you.
They did a great job with the writing. One of my pet peeves is that so many "educational" books for children write everything in CAPITAL LETTERS! This is not how words are supposed to be. They need to learn the lower case (and actually should learn lower case first if you want to choose one or the other; we do them both at the same time. The words are all written correctly and the drawings are recognizable.
In the classroom, I wouldn't use these books at circle time. I would put them out in the library, or, better yet, on the writing table. It is a great book to sit down one on one with a child and bring them back into focus.
This book was obviously a collaborative effort between many people, but there is no picture. Being that this book isn't read at circle time, I can forgive them for not putting any pictures of the author's in it. However, in case you want to still introduce the author to the children, I did find a picture of Stacey (couldn't find any of Linda-send one to me if you want).
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