Open This Little Book

A brilliant, delightful masterpiece!

There's nothing more fun than to open a picture book and to be surprised by something fresh!

The reader opens a succession of colored books, each smaller than the last, each read by a different critter, until the giant (whose shadow looks very human) complains that her fingers are too big to open

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anything any smaller--and then the books get bigger and bigger again!

A charmer.

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Wow. The level of thought and expertise that went into the design of this book amazes me, starting with the endpapers (gray raindrops to start which transform into rainbow colored raindrops at the back). The storytelling works on so many levels - there's the simple story the text tells, the items

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shared and exchanged by the friends, the absolutely brilliant use of color, and the underlying, very subtle message about how friendship, kindness, and sharing stories can change your world - making it a more colorful, brighter place to be. The attention to detail makes for a delightfully slow reading experience - tracking each of the animals and their items and who gets what in the end (I particularly adore the ladybug turning her coffee mug into a necklace for rabbit) and watching how the colors begin to mix in the back half of the book - primarily monotone scenery from the first half comes alive with all the colors from the book in the second half. To top things off, the whole thing is beautiful, particularly when you hit the center and all the pages are laid out like a rainbow. I can't wait to share this one with all the children in my life!

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January 17th and I might have a favorite book of the year already!

I felt a little cheated by this book. While the design is awesome, there's not much story or cleverness even beyond the basic idea of the book. It's a book in which a creature opens a book, which reveals another book, which when opened reveals yet another book and so on, but the words don't reveal

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anything further than what you would otherwise gather from the illustrations. It might just as well have been a wordless story. Maybe it's the nerd in me, but I had probably been hoping either for the book to make more sense or alternatively for some logical paradox or visual trick to make it more worthwhile. However, the design is quite clever, and has details and references that I enjoyed, such as the rainbow forming, how the pictures become more colorful after each book read, or the little ladybug bringing the hare's clock back from the book. I don't think we'll read it again, but I would probably grant it 3 and 1/2 stars if I could for the beautiful illustrations.

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Very cleverly constructed with lots of colors!

This book was very clever. Each new book was one within another. Each got smaller and smaller then got larger and larger to the end. Very clever with the unique concept.

Short and cute. Perfect for little kids starting to hear (or read) stories.

Sorry, didn't do anything for me. I see the friendship theme, I don't need plot, I see the colors, I do like the female giant, I usually am a sucker for metafiction and books-about-books... but there's nothing lively here, no tension, no heart. In my opinion.

A story about a group of animals reading stories about each other told through a sequence of smaller and smaller books, each in a different color. The story is simple and best suited to younger readers but the books-inside-of-books format is very creative and really what makes this book interesting

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and engaging.

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A super cute concept book playing with size and color in a unique way. The book is a traditional size book but as you open and read it gets smaller and smaller till you're reading a tiny book.