Improving on the original, The Addisons Go Skiing, Kayleigh Donnelly sends Addie Addison to Double Trouble Aquarium. Here Addie Addison showcases her mathematical strengths with doubles additions. The pictures in this book are bright, colorful, and engaging prompting children to count and add along. The embedding of math in literacy allows even those children hesitant to do math to join in.

      I recommend this book to any parent or teacher of young children ages 2-6.  For children not ready for addition, the book can be used for counting by simply having children count the marine animals on each page.

This book has me constantly laughing.  "Little Nutbrown Hare" and "Big Nutbrown Hare" are surprisingly difficult to read repeatedly.  The children I nannied for had me read it almost every day just to hear me try to read those names and roll around on the floor laughing. I thought I was the only one to struggle with reading it but telling these stories to my teacher friends I found out many adults have this problem reading it for their children or students. 

Overall it's a cute story about a parent repeatedly telling Little Nutbrown Hare how much he love him.  The lost star is because it can read as Big Nutbrown Hare trying to one up their child which makes a lot of parents uneasy.  I, however, read it as cute innocent fun similar to the "no, I love you more!" giggling conversation every parent/child, bf/gf, or even some best friends have had.  But in the interest of a well rounded review I did feel the need to share how others interpret the book. 

I recommend this book to parents and teachers of children under 4.  (The 6 year old I nanny for still loved it.  Many children read it past the age of 4 but the target age range is probably closer to 2-4.) 

The book is a silly concept where the family dog begins to speak after eating some alphabet soup.  It is a common fantasy for children and the silliness of his actions and words once he has the power to talk will have your child on the floor giggling.  

The one thing to note is the importance of the stressing the correct way to talk to someone who is bothering you (i.e. not yelling shut up).  It is important to note to your child they treated the dog poorly.   Most children will get it on their own but it is something to point out so they don't think they can just yell "shut up" at the dog or a human that is talking too much.  That is the most common complaint I hear about the book.

I highly recommend this book to parents.

This is one of my favorite books of all time.  "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom will there be enough room"?!  If you have kids of your own or are a teacher, you will have these words ingrained into my brain and you won't even mind.  Letter Recognition (upper & lower) and rhyme make this book an educational gold mind.  I personally use this book numerous times during the school year with a plethora of activities for letter recognition and then phonemic awareness.  The children love watching the letters climb the tree, the letters come crashing down and the families coming to save the day.  The bright colors are great as children are tempted to point to each letter as you read.

I highly recommend this to parents and teachers alike.

The story line can be too much for young children and may make sense for older children. My pre-kindergarteners and beginning of the year kindergarteners seemed to lose a lot of the story.  However, when they used it to tell the story to each other (reading without using the words) they really enjoyed it.  A second grader I was babysitting stumbled upon the book and absolutely loved it.  The transition from a gray, gloopy world to a colorful world filled with jellybeans is one children of all ages will enjoy.

I recommend this book to parents of children of all ages.