Peepo! (Peepo! - Allan Ahlberg)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Peepo! - Allan Ahlberg
Date:	04/08/08 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely rhyming text, really sweet pictures,

Disadvantages: It does not hold my granddaughters attention, I'm not sure why it had a war time setting

I was looking forward to reading Peepo! to my granddaughter because she'd loved the authors other book, The Baby's Catalogue. I read Peepo! myself because she was asleep when it was delivered and I found it a charming and beautifully illustrated, I couldn't wait for her to wake up so I could show it to her.

What a let down though. I pulled my granddaughter onto my lap once she'd woken up and started reading the book to her, by the time we got to the fourth page she was wriggling to get down and wouldn't interact with the story at all. She's 13 months old and I thought she'd enjoy the die-cut peep holes which show a snippet of the drawing on the next page but she didn't show very much interest compared to other peep hole books she has.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous but they are all very pale in colour as if they have been drawn in pastels rather than the bright and cheerful colours that work best in books for young babies. The story is a rhyming tale of a baby's day in the 1940's and he gets up, has breakfast, rides around the park in his pram and generally has a lovely time while World War 2 rages on in the background. I found it quite touching when baby's Daddy comes in dressed in his soldiers uniform to give him a kiss, it's a moving part of the book and I thought about all the Daddy's of the war who would kiss their baby and go off to face who knows what horrors.

My granddaughter, of course, did not understand any of this and all she could see was the dull drawings so she went off to play with her toys and other books. It's a shame really but I cannot say I blame her as there is little on each page to really hold her interest, I found it nostalgic and interesting to look through the book but it's not fun for young babies like the other Allan Ahlberg books I've seen.

The text in Peepo! is a lovely flowing poem which my granddaughter will listen to for a few minutes, but even when I sing it she doesn't really want to sit still to listen to 30 pages worth of it. I think if the pictures were more attractive and exciting to look at then she would have shown more interest in the story but visually this book just isn't exciting enough for her to enjoy. All of the text is simple so an older child who is just learning to read would be able to follow the words and the added advantage is that because it's a rhyming book the story can be learned parrot fashion and then applied once your child is reading alone.

My copy of Peepo! is a board book but it's also available in paperback. The board pages are thick and glossy meaning my granddaughter can hold the book comfortably herself, and also the pages are very durable and will wipe clean with a baby wipe. You can buy a copy for £4.24 from Amazon, although I won mine from Ebay and it cost just £1.99 with postage which I think is a decent price but I would not have wanted to pay any more for it as my granddaughter just hasn't been interested enough.

Summary: A lovely book for adults, not so good for babies I don't think!