Mister Seahorse: Board Book (World of Eric Carle)

You gotta hand it to Eric Carle for still putting together great visuals and cute stories like this. I never heard of Mister Seahorse until a few months ago, and figured it was one of his books I missed out on when I was a kid. Nope, 'turns out it was released in 2004, but it sure fits in with his other greats like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket. And just like those books, it sports a unique feature with how the pages are done here and there.Mister Seahorse takes care of Mrs. Seahorse's eggs one day, and carries them in a pouch on his stomach. He goes around the ocean, and encounters a few other fish that also happen to be dads that are taking care of their eggs too. Between encounters, Mister Seahorse will see different creatures hiding behind rocks, seaweed and other objects, introducing the reader to new kinds of marine life. The final pages have the babies hatching from their eggs in Mister Seahorse's tummy, and they all leave him, ready to go out into the world on their own. One seahorse tries to go back, but, lovingly, Mister Seahorse tells it that while he does love the baby, it needs to go on without him.This book has the usual colorful Eric Carle artwork with tissue paper, and it looks beautiful. Every book I see by him, it's like his work just gets better and better. And you gotta love the use of transparent sheets to hide some of the fish every couple of pages. One page will say that Mister Seahorse sees something, then the next page is covered by a transparent plastic sheet with something to hide the fish on the page beneath it. Like a big brown rock concealing a big brown fish. When you turn the page, Mister Seahorse is covered by the object, and it still looks good. Kids will love this feature, and my daughter is always eager to turn the clear pages herself.The only negative thing I can point out is that the book is repetitive with the plot- Mister Seahorse encounters another father fish, tells it that it's doing a good job, bumps into hidden creatures, repeat a few times, but it's been said that children love repetition, so I can't dock points for that. The story is still cute, and the artwork is eye candy galore. Plus this is one of the few kid's books I've seen around that focuses on the dad taking care of his children, and it's good that good ol' Eric did a story with this theme. 5 stars for great art, great use of clear pages, and for being my daughter's second book that she's memorized (the other being Where the Wild Things Are of course).

I love that this book has beautiful illustrations with some pages being partially transparent to reveal sea creatures hiding behind things. The story is about a seahorse couple having babies, and I like that it’s an example of a male character being nurturing and caring. Our baby boy enjoyed it.

Sweet story, great illustrations. A surprise, some pages have transparent overlays which add onto the pictures. Fun.

Durable, vibrant colors. Everything about it was great. Small book but it's not a big deal.

This is a very interesting story for kids interested in sea creatures. Discusses the roles of male sea creatures nurturing fish eggs. I learned this too and it has beautiful graphics. Six year old granddaughter loves it.

We love Eric Carle's books very much! After visiting an aquarium on our vacation, we decided to buy a few ocean-related books, including this one. The illustrations are, as always very beautiful and catchy. The clear plastic pages through which you can partially see the next page are quite unique. They definitely keep the interest of a young child throughout the book. However, the story lacks development. Mr. Seahorse just swims along and meets other daddies who take care of the unhatched eggs. We still gave the book four starts because the illustrations are fantastic and the premise of the book is cool - dads are not just by-standers in child rearing.

Sometimes there is a daddy who has to go beyond a traditional loving role, or beyond a modern loving sharing role, and do most of the parenting alone for any of a number of reasons. Without spelling any of that out for a sweet little kid, I wanted to give some recognition to that special kind of dad, and to give the gift of a good enjoyable 'together read' to that dad and his child. This book did it. I find this book to be a tribute to that kind of a daddy, and the book itself, a joy for daddy and child to cuddle up with to read together. This is a board book, with the lovely, colorful illustrations one expects from Eric Carle, with overlays to make for a special bit of excitement as new discoveries are made. It is of a size easy to handle with a child cuddled close, and for a child to later enjoy on their own. Additionally, it is educational as it introduces other sea creature dads.

This book is beautiful, great size and cute story. The quality of the material is great very sturdy cover.