Books We Love: Faces faces everywhere (Yukiko Kido)

This is my pick.

I got this at the Popular fair ($3, at 50% discount) when J was a couple months old. That's really affordable for a big activity book like this.

Edit: While trying to find another copy for older J, I realise that this book is unavailable EVERYWHERE - Amazon, Book Depository, Kinokuniya. I also realised that it's retail price is not cheap at all. Should have bought another copy back then!

I'll be honest. I actually wanted the book for myself because I love activity books (I had many as a kid) but that would be difficult to convince the husband. So I thought I'll share it with my daughter instead. It would make a great mother-daughter bonding activity and it's really easier to tell the husband "But it's for baby!"

This book caught my attention immediately as it glowed amongst the pile of books.
Really.
The cover is shiny. And sleek. And clean.
It does stand out from the other books. The pages are of very good quality paper too, and very different from the flimsy brown pages of my old activity books (not to mention that they tear easily too.)

I had meant to save it for when J is old enough to do the activities properly, but she found it.
The early days were just flipping of pages and looking at the pictures. 

Until she discovered stickers, and know what they actually are.

And it began.

Most of the pages look like this:

I had to convince her that the pages on the left all already have eyes so let's stick them on the face-less ones.

The facial features are stuck at awkward angles for most of the pages.

But the one I like most, is this. The mama duck.

Those eyes. (I can't explain the bat though.)

I think she did a good job because all mothers look like this at some point right?

Or maybe, I look like that most of the time.

I really like this book a lot and as I'm typing this, "Why didn't I get another copy??"

First look.

The illustrations are adorable and I like that there's plenty of room for the children to get creative. You can colour, stick the stickers on, or draw the features in. And because of the empty spaces around, with just one colour on each spread, you can even doodle some background if you like.

There are some face-less characters without hair at the end of the book, so the child can draw/make anyone they like.

For all ages, really.

Even though I think this book works better for a preschooler, J is still able to enjoy the book at 18 months old. We end up with wacky faces most of the time but it's fun to watch how she tries to stick those eyes on. I didn't realise this until J made me change out the eyes of the characters -- the stickers are reusable!

I'm bummed that I am unable to find another copy of the same book (for now), but I am glad I went ahead and got this the other time.