Go, Boats, Go! Review

Okay. These books are adorable. I love that even though they are promoted as focusing on the Pacific Northwest, they still feel totally relatable down here in the Gulf Coast as well. Bikes and boats are pretty universal, but there’s something special about recognizing a little part of your own traditions in stuff. For example, there is a page in the Boats book that showcases boats as floats and boats dressed up with lights. Every December down here there is a boat parade where people deck out their boats in Christmas lights and float down the Bayou, so it was fun to recognize that as something people do other places, too.

Overall, both the Boats and Bikes books have fun and engaging art as well as really well done rhyming structure. It flows well and makes it fun and easy to read. It almost has a sing-song feel to it that really captures Maren’s attention and allows me the chance to actually read it all the way through at a reasonable pace. Which is quite something right now, considering she’s in the “let’s flip the pages and read as fast as we can” stage of reading. My only complaint is I think there was a missed opportunity in the Bikes book when it features a bike with one wheel missing with the text pointing out “shouldn’t there be another wheel?” … I think it would have been such a fun moment to include a unicycle. But that’s really the only thing. Which of course the kids don’t care about at all, and I don’t actually mind other than it would have been cute to have in there.