The Topp Twins Treasury Of Sing-Along Stories including CD product reviews

When I was younger, I couldn't stand the Topp Twins but I have matured since and tastes change so I figured why not put my name down for this book, especially if coming with a cd means I won't have to sing the songs each time... The cover features a character from each book that is held within and let's you know, nice and clearly, that there are five books inside. $30 may seem like a big price tag to start with, but when you do the maths (even if each story was on sale at $10 each, it's still a nice big saving).

The Dingle-Dangle Scarecrow is the only tale of the five that I had never heard before, so I wasn't able to sing along the first time around, just like the kids, but the good thing is that the Topp Twins have good dictation and so each word is easy to tell apart (which meant I didn't need to be looking at the book to learn the words). The font is easy to read and a good size, so no straining of the eyes for any age in this house. My kids thought that the illustrations are really well done and they really liked the scarecrow (they want another book of this character) and the pig in 'Do Your Ears Hang Low'.

This is a great value book, even without the CD it would be great value. This has been a hit with all of us and I would certainly recommend it for young ones in your life.

This book is called a treasury and that is exactly what it is. There are five songs / stories in this book that are going to be firm favourites with any child. I have used several of these books with the preschoolers that I teach before, and it is WONDERFUL to have them all grouped together. I was particularly excited to read the dingle dangle scarecrow, as I hadn't seen that as an individual story and it is one of my favourite songs.

The first thing that strikes you when you open any of these books are the illustrations, they are magnificent. Bright, large, slightly comic and endearing are all words that spring to mind to describe the pages. This book is a good size to read to children approximately thirty cm by thirty cm, and you could easily read to a small group and everyone would be able to see the pictures. For children who are more independant, with the CD playing they can 'read' along and the print in most of the stories is a good size, and is published in an engaging way, encouraging the reader to notice it.

The Topp Twins themselves are iconic to most adult New Zealanders, of course children don't really care if the singer is famous or not, they care if the music and songs are fun, which of course they are, and every time I have brought this out to use the children have joined in heartily with the songs. The "She'll be coming round the mountain" song couldn't have been sung by anyone else, as it has their trademark yodelling woven into the tune. As an adult reading the last two pages of this treasury, it was wonderful to learn a little more about both the Topp Twins and Jenny Cooper the illustrator, who if she is to be believed has painted 132 million, 948 thousand, and 373 whiskers in these books!

I think with the $30 price tag this book is exceptional value for money, as I have happily paid $24 for one of the stories within this treasury. It is elegantly presented with the gold writing on the cover, and the hard back format, and I think it would make a wonderful gift for any child from birth to seven years of age.