Cave Kiddos
A Sunny Day
Adults working with delayed speakers can add the Cave Kiddos and their one-word learning adventure to their toolboxes.
Eric Jay Cash’s Cave Kiddos: A Sunny Day is a picture book geared toward children who are delayed speakers. The author relates that he became interested in speech development when he worked with his own children. Fellow parents and educators will appreciate this book for its addition to their teaching toolboxes. Except for one illustration with a few sound-effect words next to it, there’s only a single word in the entire book, allowing for clear focus on one concept.
Four Paleolithic children (Alk, Haha, Lala, and Zee) share the experience of learning not just an important word, but one that is also necessary for survival: water. Each page only features part of that word, until the end when they speak and understand the full word and concept. From the beginning, the book encourages children to get into the spirit by talking and acting like a Cave Kiddo.
The illustrations and cover are colorful and add understanding to what’s happening in the book. Alk, Haha, Lala, and Zee have friendly faces, and children will enjoy learning the important word and concept right along with them.
The book does not focus on developing a plot, and that seems to limit the target audience quite a bit. While children will have no problem identifying with the four Cave Kiddos, they don’t learn much about them or their lives. A Sunny Day is essentially a book with a clear purpose, but without a story.
A Sunny Day is well suited to story-time readings, where its pages might be articulated and acted out, and would be perfect for small classrooms. It makes learning a necessary word fun, especially for those who are delayed speakers.
Reviewed by
Kelly Thunstrom
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
