I Can Do It Myself

by Valorie Fisher, Valorie Fisher (Illustrator)

Overview

Can you tie your shoe? Write your letters and numbers? Make your bed? Or set the table? Can you do it by yourself? Children and parents alike will rejoice as 4- to 6-year-olds achieve these important childhood milestones (and many more) with the help of this engaging and fun picture book.

Award-winning author-illustrator Valorie Fisher uses bright, gorgeous photos to illustrate these topics in a completely fresh way. Parents will love this stylish and funny approach to common childhood tasks, while kids will revel in the joy of independence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780449815953
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
Lexile:	330L (what's this?)
File size:	29 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

VALORIE FISHER is the creator of the back-to-school favorite Everything I Need to Know Before I’m Five, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year; How High Can a Dinosaur Count?, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; and the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award winners My Big Brother and My Big Sister. She is also the photographer for the beloved Moxy Maxwell books by Peggy Gifford. Valorie lives in Cornwall, Connecticut, with her family and a colossal collection of tiny toys. Learn more at valoriefisher.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/05/2014
In a natural follow-on from Everything I Need to Know Before I’m Five, Fisher champions preschool self-actualization in this upbeat how-to, illustrated with close-up photographs of children and tiny plastic toys. Along the pages’ vertical edges, statements like “I know my left” and “I know my right” refer to larger-than-life photos of a child’s left and right hands and feet. A spread titled “I hold my pencil” demonstrates left-handed and right-handed techniques. (An all-inclusive spirit is implicit in the activities and the various skin tones of the children and dolls.) To illustrate the heading “I brush my teeth,” she pictures inch-tall dolls maneuvering an actual-size toothbrush around a stylized set of dentist-office-demonstration teeth. For “I make lemonade,” a tall doll saws a lemon in half and a much smaller doll sweeps up grains of spilled sugar. Throughout, Fisher favors eye-popping colors and buoyant patterns, and she also combines photos and diagrams: crawling plastic bugs and multidirectional arrows help readers trace letters and numbers. From dressing oneself to mastering colors, patterns, and even making the bed, Fisher’s encouraging book balances the known and the new. Ages 3–7. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly starred review, May 5, 2014:
“From dressing oneself to mastering colors, patterns, and even making the bed, Fisher’s encouraging book balances the known and the new.

From the Publisher

05/01/2014
Pres-K—This book, with an apt title, is a checklist for preschoolers or kindergarteners. It begins with learning left and right, includes learning colors and shapes, and ends with making fresh lemonade. Illustrations demonstrate writing grips for both the right hand and the left, giving an easy-to-follow technique for holding a pencil. There are examples of how to form numbers and letters in which the order of the steps is color-coded. The book also includes simple words, shapes, and colors, as well as information on how to get dressed. Trouble comes when the book attempts to show how to tie shoes. There are so many more child-friendly ways to teach a youngster this skill ("bunny ears…") than the one used here. Making a bed is oversimplified, but this would be a good reminder for a child who has already learned the basics. Illustrations combine photographs of dolls, toys, and children. The photos of the children performing tasks are the most successful. Overall, this book tries to do too much for too many ability levels. While there are some useful sections, it is recommended as an additional purchase.—Mary Hazelton, formerly at Warren & Waldoboro Elementary Schools, ME

School Library Journal

2014-04-16
A series of colorful, photographed spreads provides visual instruction and documentation of various tasks and skills for child readers to master.From writing letters and numbers through identifying shapes and colors to setting the table and making lemonade, each spread provides affirmation and support of young readers' burgeoning achievements and milestones. Unfortunately, even though the spreads are visually arresting, they are not always smoothly sequenced. The book starts well, encouraging children to identify their left and right hands and then to take up a pencil with one or the other to make numbers, letters and then words. But then an introduction of shapes and colors leads to the use of scissors, followed by identifying patterns and then dressing and other types of self-care. This results in a package that seems like a collection of posters or a catalog rather than a cohesive picture book. It's difficult to imagine a reading transaction that would have children following through the book from one page to the next with rapt attention to the lessons they convey in order to have readers fulfill the title's promise. Still, the use of plastic dolls to complement photographs of humans and diagrams is child-pleasing, and preschoolers who simply leaf through it may find themselves inspired.Ultimately, haphazard structure undermines a visually engaging presentation. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews