A lovely addition to your child's book shelf (Pooh's Xylophone Book)

Member Name: Ann-Marie_B

Product:	Pooh's Xylophone Book
Date:	13/05/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Teaches color recognition and hand eye co-ordination

Disadvantages: Pages could be stronger

My son received Pooh's Xylophone book as a gift from his grandparents at Christmas. For the purposes of this review however I have browsed online for an idea of price. I found this product on a website at www.toyjeanius.co.uk priced at £6.99.

This is a rather large book and is relatively sturdy. The pages are made from cardboard though slightly thinner than the average board book. To the right hand side of this book is the xylophone encased in red plastic.

The book itself contains ten nursery rhymes each set out on a two-page spread with a colourful picture on the first page. Each picture and rhyme are sideways on. These rhymes however are not the traditional ones, the words in each have been changed to make new ones regarding Pooh and his friends, though the tune to each remains the same. Each rhyme is written at the top of the page and just below is a piece of sheet music depicting colourful dots which correlate to the colours of the keys on the xylophone. This makes it possible to play along with the tunes after a little practice.

The xylophone is in essence more of a keyboard. Though it does include a stick to hit the keys with, the keys do need to be depressed in order to sound an electronic tune, rather unlike a traditional xylophone which relied on the sounds made from hitting its metal keys.

Alongside the keys are ten pictures which each relate to the nursery rhymes in the book. When pressed the nursery rhyme will sound and a small LED next to each key will light up in order. Immediately after the tune is finished one LED will remain. If you press the key next to the LED another will light up and it will guide you through which keys need to be pressed to play the tune.

At the very bottom of the xylophone is a small red button. I had been completely unaware of this button until my 17 month old son discovered it one day. It is basically a stop button and will stop the tune that you are playing.

My son is still rather young to fully understand the working of this book. However he loves music and is getting plenty of enjoyment from pressing the buttons and hitting the keys. He has unfortunately managed to bend some of the pages slightly as it is not as strong as some of his other books.

The manufacturer's age guidance for this book is 18 months plus though my son has actually owned it and played with it under supervision from just 12 months.

In summary, Pooh's Xylophone Book is a lovely addition to any child's book shelf. The illustrations are bright and colourful and the keys and sheet music teach colour recognition and hand and eye co-ordination. I'm sure that my son will enjoy this book on another level once he is at the age to understand how to play the sheet music but for now he is having lots of fun with it nonetheless. This book is simply a bargain at £6.99.

Summary: A lovely addition to your child's book shelf