My youngest daughter has recently aquired my oldest daughters cast offs in way of books so we have started trying to get our youngest to sit and listen to a story. One of the books which was difficult for my eldest to give up was this one as she likes the Elmer stories so much but finally she did give it up grudgingly!

There are four Elmer books in the board series which as aimed at babies just starting to enjoy stories, there is Elmer's Friends, Elmer's Colours, Elmer's Weather (see previous review) and Elmer's Day. The Elmer board books tend to be around £5 each when i have seen them although I have stopped buying books in high street shops now as I find they seem to be much cheaper over the internet. The Elmer stories and written and illustrated by David Mckee who is a well known childrens author and even illustrated the Paddington Bear stories.

The book is the same as all in the board series and is about 4-5 inches square, the front cover shows Elmer the patchwork elephant lloking like he is walking across the cover with lots of birds flying above him. The background of the book is bright pink so your eye is drawn to it on the shelf and the title and author information is written in bold black writing acorss the top.

Inside the book there are 7 double spread pages and the story goes across each double spread rather than being on single pages, the story follows Elmer the elephant as he goes to see his friends. The story begins with Elmer surrounded by the grey elephants saying he is going to see his friends, you then follow Elmer through the pages as he meets with each of his friends in turn. We start with zebra the stripiest followed by giraffe the tallest, snake the longest, kangaroo the bounciest, mouse the smallest, lion the loudest, owl the wisest, polar bear the whitest and leopard the spottiest. The last page of the book shows all the animals having fun together and pointing out even though they are all different they are all friends of Elmers.

The pictures in the book are all bright and bold, there is a little detailing such as a pattern on the snake but not too much for a babies eyes to take in all at once. Each double page is basically Elmer and whichever animal he is meeting at the time surrounded by flowers, birds and trees so nothing too complicated but then not boring either and obviously all the bright colouirs are great for holding a little ones attention for more than 2 minutes.

My daughter is 15 months old and is getting better at sitting and having a story and she does seem to like the Elmer books which I presume is because of the colours, she even points things out on the pages which I think is great as she is interacting with the books. I like the books as Elmer has always been a firm favourite in our house and although the story is very simple it teachest about how animals are different. i would recommend any of the Elmer books and as my eldest has gotton older we still buy the Elmer books just more for her age now.