Rhymoceros, as cute as it sounds for toddlers learning words

Rhymoceros is a thick book.  It’s a big board book with 16 images of a rhinoceros. To be clear, it’s the same 16 pictures of the rhinoceros doing some very silly things. In some he’s holding a balloon while on the page directly opposite that he’s standing in front of the moon. This is a rhyming book for the small ones that is sweet, creative and just slightly goofy.

Readers may think of Sandra Boynton and her early beginning vocabulary books when looking at the art in Rhymoceros.  It’s a natural thought because the rhinoceros is relatively simple; he doesn’t move, is super cute and manages to make adults smile when looking at the book.

Several of the pages in Rhymoceros are textured to encourage small hands to touch.  The ‘quilted’ page has a hand sewn feel, ‘furry’ is covered in brown felt and ‘bumpy’ has dozens of small blue bumps on it.  The book is a hybrid of sorts between a board book and the big kid’s books that they’ll grow in to.

The vocabulary is simple, with each page only having one word on it.  It’s the size of the pages that will let small children really have fun with the book.  Most of the board books that we have are half of the size of Rhymoceros.  The big pages allow for larger art and make it simpler for young readers to turn through at their own pace without getting frustrated.

If you have a small child who is 1-4 then they’ll like this book.  It’s for the little ones, but is clever and pretty enough to let the parents enjoy the fun too.