Giggle! product reviews

Giggle! has been in my house for a few days now and it has been a massive hit with Miss 20 months. The moment I introduced her, she was in love. Of course the sound button was given a thorough work-out. It has the sound of laughter on it. I didn't find the sound too annoying, but then I am okay with most noisy toys. Also the laughter was not an abrasive or obnoxious fake laughter which made it easier to deal with.

The book itself is a board book. Its heavy, with thick pages. The back section of it is thicker again, to allow for the sound machine. My daughter did find reading this book (flipping through the pages) a little frustrating at first. It took her a while to work out that the back section was all fused together. She was pulling and pulling on it trying to separate the pages.

She loves this book. She doesn't have a lot of patience to sit and listen to the words, but that will come. At the moment, she is enjoying the act of turning the pages, and pushing the button. I love that the story is short and sweet. It has great illustrations and the button (for me) is not too much to take. I also love that this book is engaging her well and it's durable.

As a homebased educarer I have been sharing Giggle! with children ranging from 16 months to 5 years old. It is definitely more of a hit with the younger children who will grab the book and sit for a long time with the book on their lap pushing the sound button. As an adult this electronic (tinny) giggling can wear thin very quickly but I reminded myself that it was getting the young ones interested in books. It is the sort of book you hide away when you have had enough. Reading the book without the sound would be a very different experience. The batteries can be easily removed or replaced with the help of a screwdriver. It requires the tiny cell batteries you can pick up cheaply from a $2 type store.

The book is a good strong toddler book which looks brand new even after a week of being drooled on, and handled by little hands. Because of the sound mechanism the kids are surprised that the last page of the book is half the thickness of the book. They quickly adapted to this. The other bonus of the sound button is that the book has a hole on each page which the kids found was perfect for peering through or tickling my leg as it sat open on my lap.

The story itself is a sweet story about the things that make you laugh. There is lovely rhyme throughout and every time I read it we ended up with a tickle session. For this reason it is a daytime book rather than a bedtime story. (You don't want to hype them up when they should be winding down.) It was great for bonding with your child. One of my carekids was very quiet this week due to some changes at home and reading this a couple of times a day was a lovely opportunity to give him much needed cuddles when he wouldn't normally let me. After reading this we all were laughing.

The illustrations were all the kids (no adults at all in the book) on a plain background. Perfect for toddlers and babies. The kids are big round faces with simple lines for the facial features. This allowed some of the characters with black hair to appear Asian. It was great to see children from different ethnic backgrounds as friends.

It is save to say this is a lovely book for babies and toddlers but the sound can get a bit irritating for the adults.