Opposites Abstract

The publisher recommended age/grade for this is 0- 2 and Preschool. I hope that somewhere there are scientists studying perception and sitting this book in front of children that age and asking them what they see, or at least those old enough to talk. We adults, after all, having some training in

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our culture's notion of perception. If they were shown the "soft" painting and asked if it was soft, would they pat the book and say that it is hard? Do they understand what the words mean? Piaget concluded from his experiments that small children do not understand the concept of "more." Another study concluded that they (and chimps) understand if candy is involved.

I have read that some scientists made a triangle out of three sticks and went around the world asking people what they see. Some of them said "three sticks," and could not be convinced that there is anything special about the arrangement. Some cultures have only two words for colors "black" and "white", perhaps better called "dark" and "light." Some scholars argued that since they only have two words for color, that is all that they perceive: e.g. navy and black would look the same to them. Other researchers gave the people paint chips and asked them to arrange them. They claim that the people do see the distinctions, they've just never bothered to name them.

I would have liked the opposite pictures to be on facing pages; I think that contrast would be very effective.

I anxiously await the study. Meanwhile, it might be helpful in teaching older children that conventions of abstraction, even if younger children don't see them,

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