These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals. Gibbs’ vibrant illustrations (the fiery rooster is particularly bold) and expressive eyes make this effort all the more fun.Ī format that engages, entertains and delights-for the third time in a row. The clue for the first animal reads: “something yellow that begins with a D.” It is likely that the watery pond background and the speech bubble loudly proclaiming, “Quack, quack!” will be all the clues a youngster needs, but reinforcing the d sound adds a welcome level of early childhood learning. However, Gibbs does sneak in some letter recognition and phonemic play as well.

Each spread begins with the inevitable “I spy with my little eye…” and concludes with a colorful hint about a favorite barnyard friend. But this time Gibbs removes the factual clues and gives only animal sounds as hints instead. Gibbs brings a new guessing game ( I Spy with My Little Eye, 2011 I Spy Under the Sea, 2012) to the youngest set.Ĭolors, which are an essential part of the original I Spy children’s game, are once again the focus of this clever die-cut formula.

I Spy on the Farm by Edward Gibbs