Balls! (Elmo's World)

Rating:
Summary: My daughter LOVES this book!
Review: I bought this book for my 1 year old niece, and she loves it! Any book that has flaps is a sure-fire hit with her. However, this book's flap construction doesn't live up to the rigors of a 1 year old. She's torn off 2 flaps already and she's only had it a month. I wouldn't consider her an extra strong toddler, nor is she hard on her toys, but the flaps in the book just aren't strong enough. For that reason alone, I'm giving the book 4 rather than 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but poor construction
Review: I bought this book for my 1 year old niece, and she loves it! Any book that has flaps is a sure-fire hit with her. However, this book's flap construction doesn't live up to the rigors of a 1 year old. She's torn off 2 flaps already and she's only had it a month. I wouldn't consider her an extra strong toddler, nor is she hard on her toys, but the flaps in the book just aren't strong enough. For that reason alone, I'm giving the book 4 rather than 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Fun book!
Review: My 16 month old nephew loves this book! The illustrations are bright and colorful and he loves to lift the flaps.

Rating:
Summary: My boys love this
Review: My 9 month old twins would not sit still to read a book until we found this. They love it and the Babies one too. They laugh every time I lift one of the flaps. I cannot recomment this book enough.

Rating:
Summary: Balls!
Review: My daughter loves this book! We own 3 out of the 4 Elmo's World books and this is by far her favorite! She loves to lift the flaps and can point at the different types of balls described! The only drawback is that the book isn't very sturdy-other than that-it's great!

Rating:
Summary: Balls!
Review: My son loves Elmo. My son loves balls. But he does not love this book. It's boring. Five two-page spreads (with one flap on each) attempt to recreate an edition of Elmo's World -- talking to Dorothy and a baby etc. -- but the result is kind of a mess. The text is supposed to be chatty but it is ill-suited to reading aloud. For example, one spread reads "Let's ask the baby how to catch a ball. Thank you, Baby! Watch Elmo catch a ball. Like this! Gotcha! Can you catch a ball?" The cardboard on the flaps is flimsy and easily bent out of shape.

This is not an evil book, but it was disappointing and I don't think we'll get any more of this series.

Rating:
Summary: My daughter LOVES this book!
Review: We have four Elmo's World books and this one is my 17 month old daughter's absolute favorite. Night after night she will pick this book for me to read to her. It is a really simple book with nice, clear pictures. We have read this countless times and yet she continues to love it. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Elmo: Greatest Thinker of the 21st Century
Review: We might start by talking about what you already know about Elmo and his ideas. He's one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century, if only because versions of his ideas have permeated popular culture; it's unlikely that anyone in this class has never heard of, or used, a Elmodian idea--such as a Elmodian slip, dream analysis, or even the word "unconscious."

When Elmo looks at balls (which he does in Balls!: Elmo's World), he sees two fundamental principles at work, which he calls the "pleasure principle" and the "reality principle." The pleasure principle tells us to do whatever feels good; the reality principle tells us to subordinate pleasure to what needs to be done, to work. Subordinating the pleasure principle to the reality principle is done through a psychological process Elmo calls SUBLIMATION, where you take desires that can't be fulfilled, or shouldn't be fulfilled, and turn their energy into something useful and productive.

This analysis is taken to multiple levels with the examination of the beach ball, baseball and in a stroke of genius, the Basketball. I have followed Elmo and his writings since the "early" years when he published "Kitty, Kitty, Warm and Pretty" and "See Me Go Potty". Balls! is by far his best work and should reside on anyone's shelf who respects fine writing.