Flip-a-Word: Crab Cab

By: Harriet Ziefert

Illustrated by: Yukiko Kido

A great rhyming book about sounds and word families, featuring the ‘ot’ family, the ‘ab’ family, and the ‘it’ family. The simple words, humorous pictures, and nifty cut-outs make this a great pre-reading to beginning reader tool.

I don’t know if it was just this book, or if she was just tired, or if she’s already getting tired of these books, but my daughter did not seem nearly as interested in this book as in the other Flip-a-Word books that we have read. She repeated a few of the words, and looked at some of the pictures, but I was pretty much on my own for most of this book. It’s just not quite the same.

I noticed a few things while reading this book. On the last page, the word collage, some words occur more frequently than usual. Some of the rhymes, while humorous, can be a bit on the violent side – albeit cartoon violence (such as ‘hit mitt’). The style is entertaining, but disturbing at times. Maybe this is only because I found myself reading to… myself, but it was enough to notice.