Does your little one know what color lemons are supposed to be? How about a snowman? Help them learn the correct color of many foods and animals in Lemons are Not Red. The distinguishable quality in this book is the textures; every other page is painted with heavy strokes clearly visible and encouraging touch. Opposite each brush-stroked page is a cut-out of a food or animal against one backdrop of color, but when you flip the page the cutout is now on the other side of the book with a new (and correct) background color; The purple carrot turns into an orange carrot, and the white reindeer turns into the brown reindeer. The two items being compared are also always related whether they are both foods, elements of nature, or animals. Your little one can see what color things are not, and then immediately see and learn what the correct color is. The cut-out concept makes learning fun, creative, and interactive.

This book does not need to be read in order, so your little one can hold the book and explore the pages in any order they want. They can feel the cut-outs and practice turning the pages to change the color. You can add lessons by pointing to each page and naming - or having your little one name - the color, object, or animal. There are less common (but still very fun!) things to name, such as an eggplant and a flamingo. Do they know which color is the correct one for a flamingo? The sentences follow the same pattern, saying what something is not, and then what it is, so your child will catch on to the pattern and perhaps move their head to the 'beat' it creates or even begin filling in the next word with you.

My two-year-old friend Kyle often asks him mom or dad to read this book to him. He loves to sit beside them and feel each page while they read. He will answer their prompts of what color is what, but Kyle is primarily enamored with the cutouts. He loves to stick his fingers -or sometimes his whole hand - through then, and then turn the page and see fingers wiggling on the other side.

--Audra