by Lauren Crisp and Laura Silveira
The “I Can Learn My First Sounds” books are a series of “noisy” toddler board books, where pressing a button plays a sound that goes with each picture. Unlike the Usborne Let’s Go books, which have a different button within each illustration, these use one rubbery featured element that sticks through cutouts on every page.
My Take
The concept is cute but it doesn’t work.
Don’t get me wrong, I get the appeal–if I saw this on a shelf at the store, and I was two years old, I’d be pretty psyched! A big bus that I can poke in different spots to hear different sounds! Cool!
The problem is, there’s nothing really linking the different “buttons” within the bus to each picture. It’s all completely arbitrary. For example: there’s a picture of the bus picking up kids, and you’re supposed to press the wheels to hear a sort of engine sound sound. But wheels don’t really have anything to do with the engine running. And the engine running doesn’t really have anything to do with pickup, at least not any more than any other school bus sound. There’s just a little black tab (not exciting!) telling me, the adult reader, that this is the page that goes with wheels.
For a toddler, I’d much rather see pages with clear action, where the image and sound fit together. That makes it exciting to flip through, since the sound goes with what you’re looking at (and doesn’t go with whatever happened on the previous page). As it is, my kid just looks at the cover, presses the buttons a couple of times, and moves on. No reason to even open the book.
And for what it’s worth, the writing is not very good either. I don’t expect literary brilliance from these noisy books (that’s not their main purpose). But I have to say I don’t enjoy reading this one.
Final Verdict
My Grade: D
I don’t think the concept here works. If you’re looking for “noisy” books, the Usborne series is a better bet.
➡️ Want more recommendations? Check out my list of the best truck books for toddlers.