My whale-loving child loves "Humphrey"
352590
My young son is obsessed with whales -- classification, habits, songs, and the like. So of course, I had to find him a stuffed whale for Christmas! He already has a small killer whale, and I really wanted to find something a little more unusual. Most toy whales seem to be of the orca variety. Also, because my son has an eye for detail, I knew only a realistic whale would do.  I was pleased to find this very realistic -- and big, 22 inches-- humpback whale that my son almost instantly dubbed "Humphrey the Humpback."

The two have been inseparable since the whale's arrival. Humphrey gets a lot of love and attention. He sleeps with my son, sometimes serving as a pillow, sits on the dinner table, and gets squished into a backpack and snuck to school, where he is passed around on the bus and at recess. Despite all this,  Humphrey still looks as new and fresh as he did the day my son excitedly pulled him out of the package.

This is a reasonably priced item worth ever penny, and then some.
4551826
This grandparent is always on the prowl for those elusive  toys which are as appealing to babies as toddlers and and even  preschoolers. Hungry Pelican is one of those toys.

Although my grandson is now 16 months old, the Hungry Pelican's wings, rattling feet, and wobbly bill delight him as well as younger babies who visit. There is simply something about the expression on this bird's  face which is both goofy and charming, inviting young ones to reach for him.

The white polka dots on the red wings are easy for babies to see and the wings (which make a  nice crinkling noise) are large and easily grabbed. With very little effort, babies are rewarded with varied noises and textures.

Our 16 month old grandson is going through a stage where he likes to put small objects inside of larger ones - and then retrieve them. Shape sorters are extremely popular with him. The Hungry Pelican toy is not a shape sorter but is equally fascinating.  He loves "feeding" the pelican  the 4 stuffed sea creatures that comes with this toy.

He opens the Hungry Pelican's bill and simply drops them inside. This is very easy to do because the mouth opening is nice and wide. The creatures which come with the toy include a red crab and green and yellow fish (both make rattling sounds), an octopus which squeaks, and a very crinkly worm-like creature.

Sometimes our grandson likes to shake or squeeze these stuffed animals and play with them separately but mostly he likes to place them in the pelican and retrieve them from the opening in the bird's  belly  - and he'll do this repeatedly for long periods of time. To add to the fun, sometimes I'll feed him a cracker or other small piece of food and then he'll feed the pelican one of the stuffed creatures.

Let's just hope this doesn't backfire on me and I see our grandson trying to feed this bird some messy food some day! But for now, he gets a kick out of eating alongside his pelican friend and I think it helps him to understand cause and effect relationships better...while still having plenty of fun.

The side of this product's box has a detailed list of parent/child learning activities,  a nice bonus feature. By sticking my hand inside the belly opening of the pelican and reaching up to the bill, I could even improvise a puppet and that was hugely popular. This toy was not designed to be a puppet, however, so you do need to "wing it" a bit (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) to pull off that feat.
2738104
We love Pete the cat at our house!  Sir Pete is one of my daughter's favorites.  (She is in first grade.)
1902597
My 2 year old son loves all the Elliot Moose and friend's stories (since we started reading them to him when he was a few months old). He loves to have us read them to him over and over. Recently, he started "reading" them to us! Elliot is such a loving character, that has fun adventures with his friends. These books also have wonderful illustrations we use to teach our son, and have him point out things he knows and learn new words.
1979599
My son (16 months old) has chosen this book from the library 4 times in the past few months, and he now requests it by title (the only book he does this for). Today as I was trying to sneak it away into the library bag, he looked at me with his big blue eyes and asked, "Quack Quack?". So I renewed it (again), and bought our own copy.

If your little one loves animals and the sounds they make, this is a good one to have in your collection. The pages alternate between thick cardboard and cardboard with a layer of foam between (which makes it easy to turn pages in the book). Very simple wording (ie- "See the lamb. Maa. The lamb says "maa". Nice lamb"). It says 6-12 months, but my 16 month old is still obsessed with it.
4855190
An amazing true story of a whale, a diver and a unique expression of gratitude.  The pictures are spectacular and the words meaningful.  Not only is the book lovely, but so too is the author/illustrator.  We had the privilege of meeting her in person and she was lovely and kind, taking the time to answer all of my five-year-old's questions.  This is now a nightly must-read!
17574
I am always looking for books that both my 5 and 2 year old will like-this one fits the bill. The sweet rhyming on each page makes the book flow naturally and keep my little one engaged while the new vocab about the groups of animals keeps my older child interested. The book is just the right length and the illustrations are cute. The only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 is because on the whale page is says "...these creatures of God". That is something I wish I knew before I started reading to my kids as I did not want a religious angle.
2110276
My son really enjoys making his whale gobble up pirates, or anything else for that matter. He did wonder if all whales looked this scary, as the toy is a little scary. However, he loves to play with it, along with his pirate ship from this same toy company. He likes how the whale can shoot water from its top.
1104715
My baby boy has recently become very interested in books, especially of the board book sort. This book along with Miss Spider's Tea Party is a favorite of his. He loves to turn the pages and giggles at the purple cat and blue horse each time we read it together. Once the book is read cover to cover there's usually a demand for a repeat performance, over and over! It's wonderful to see him so engaged in the pictures and the story. He's not really learning his colors just yet but he's definitely starting to learn the names of all the animals and the sounds they make (I usually editorialize and add in the animal noises although I'm stuck with fish lips and a kissing noise when I get to the goldfish because I'm not sure what noise, if any a goldfish makes!) As an aside, we started reading this book to him when he was around 7 or 8 months old so might like it so much because it is familiar to him, but it doesn't matter the reason, we love this book!
3389066
Ok. Based on the description, I wasn't sure how this book was going to work. But I still ordered it anyways because my 2.5 year old loves sea creatures and this book had great reviews.

I'm including pictures, hopefully it'll be helpful who struggled visualizing this too. The "flashlight" is a white cardstock can be moved around the page to spotlight animals on the page. This is such a fun book for the kids! Some of the animals are a bit small and it's not always the clearest but my son still loves it and is always eager to look for the next creature. I've ordered the other book in this series!!
4797979
This little thing is adorable. My son (3) loves Humphrey. Needless to say, Humphrey got dirty with all kinds of unspeakable contaminants pretty quickly. So, according to directions, I should have been able to throw Humphrey in with the wash on a regular cycle, and dry him just the same. Well...I was able to! He came out smelling much less like a factory and more like a field of summer flowers in full bloom at daybreak, stitching in perfect condition, short fuzzy hair impeccable. Definitely worth the almost $20, because when my son isn't cuddling him, I definitely am.
1575079
My two year old (26 mos) adopted from China just LOVES this book. As his grasp of English and French are too minimal to listen to long stories with a lot of words (he just wants to turn the pages faster than I can read), this minimal text storybook is just the thing for him. As an other reviewer noted, you can go through it quickly, or more slowly pointing things out etc. He is very observant and loves finding the mouse and banana, toys, slippers, the keys etc. As I have mimed and pointed out things, he now "reads" it to me, pointing out details, mimicking facial expressions, showing appropriate surprise (the zookeeper's wife), copying the gorilla's sheepish "discovered!" grin, miming the gorilla and mouse climbing under the covers at the end (with his hand under his shirt). He will bring this to me daily and have me "read" it three times in a row. Before this he wouldn't sit through more than a four-spread book without wanting to flip ahead. I highly recommend this for kids "new" to books, not just the suggested 3-6 yr old age .
4811752
We read this as a school project (every family received a copy), and we couldn't wait to get to the next chapter every night.  I found that I couldn't wait to finish it myself, even though I was reading it separately to both of my kids.  We're now buying more Humphrey books because we want to hear what happens to Humphrey on his next adventure, and I am thrilled they are so excited to read them.  Bravo, Ms. Birney, you've helped more readers to realize their love of books!
4405845
My daughter absolutely loves this book...so much so that since we discovered it at the library, we kept renewing it until the library told us we couldn't anymore, so here I am!

The story is sweet - its written simply for a child to understand, but not dumbed down - it's an intelligent little tale with beautiful illustrations.  The illustrations are "raised" so there's a touch-and-feel element.  The binding is strong and the pages are thick, so it can withstand a little bit of rough page turning typical of younger kids.

As a burgeoning, possible future marine biologist, my 6-year-old adores seals, whales and other ocean mammals, so this book has a special place in our heart.  Sometimes she just sits with and looks at it happily.  Whether your child has aspirations to be a "sea animal doctor" as my little girl loves to say, or just generally loves sea animals (especially seals), they'll probably love this book.
3125025
My 2 year old son loves all the Elliot Moose and friend's stories (since we started reading them to him when he was a few months old).  He loves to have us read them to him over and over.  Recently, he started "reading" them to us!  Elliot is such a loving character, that has fun adventures with his friends.  These books also have wonderful illustrations we use to teach our son, and have him point out things he knows and learn new words.
2191040
My baby has been entertained by 'Captain Calamari' since he was 2 months. He loves trying out the different legs in his mouth but is especially loving the rings now that he is teething. We don't go anywhere without him!
3329751
My daughter is 2 yrs old and watches Bubble Guppies every night before bed. It's her favorite show. I could not get her interested in reading books until I found this one. She loves it and listens to the whole thing. It's just long enough to have some substance to it, without being too drawn out and losing her attention. She's even starting to get interested in reading other books now too. I'm so glad I found this.