Snail and Turtle are Friends product reviews

I was keen to review this book as being a teacher that specialises in behaviour I think it is really important to introduce children to feelings and friendships as early as we can. It is really hard to teach a 5 yr old (when they start school) that 'we are all different and that is ok' if this has not been introduced at an earlier age.

So it was great to see that Stephen King had published a book on friendship for the 2-5 year old age level. He managed to capture emotion, playfulness and personality in two simple characters - the snail and the turtle. At first I was disappointed in the lack of explanation/words but realised after reading this many a time that this book captured the attention of my son and lack of words gave my son and I a starting point to talk about differences with things he could relate to at his age.

The cartoon like illustrations gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling especially when snail hitched a ride on the back of turtle. I loved how there was a page you had to look for the characters that were hiding.

It is great to see a book that focuses on friendship for the young and would definitely recommend this to schools and day-care's to have in their book collection. Such a simple but effective book.

Snail and Turtle are Friends is a very sweet story that appeals to the young children in my homebased childcare. It has become the favourite book for one of the three year olds. She has very limited knowledge of animals and didn't know what which one was a snail or a turtle when I first introduced the book to her. She certainly does now and she is educating the younger ones.

It is a very basic book. Most pages are a sentence or less so the toddlers happily listen to it while the three and four year olds have memorised it quickly. The pictures are so cute to and really appeals to the target age group. The favourite page for all the children was where the characters were hiding and they had to find them. My favorite page was the last page where it is night time and they are tucked up in their shells. The illustration has a purple tint and the children help me to count the stars. Sometimes, after reading it, I will get them to tuck themselves up into their shell and pretend they are snails or turtles.

The book is made to last. It is hardcover (which accounts for the price) and the pages are thicker than usual so are less likely to rip when a toddler is reading it. If you want a heartwarming story about friendship for your toddler I recommend this. Stephen Michael King hasn't disappointed us with this.