Murphy's promising (if utilitarian) new series, I See I Learn, uses the concept of visual learning to help reinforce social, emotional, cognitive and health and safety skills. This title, which focuses on Emma's efforts to make friends in her new neighborhood and gives young children some concrete ways to reach out to others, is the standout of the inaugural four. In Good Job, Ajay!, readers build their confidence alongside Ajay, who is working on learning how to throw a ball better. His friends help him by recalling other times when he was successful at difficult tasks. Freda Plans a Picnic teaches youngsters the skill of sequencing. The weakest of the four, Percy Plays it Safe, shows readers what happens when Percy plays unsafely on the playground. His friends' responses to his injury are not particularly friendly, and his sudden turnaround in behavior is abrupt. Key words are bolded within the text, while the concepts are illustrated using insets and diagrams. Jones's bright illustrations feature a cast of anthropomorphized cartoon animals. Backmatter includes a list of follow-up questions and activities.

From the new Stuart J. Murphy's I See I Learn series, Emma's Friendwich, Freda Plans a Picnic, Good Job ,Ajay!, and Percy Plays It Safe for ages 3-5. This series uses the child's visual learning which he or she develops by age 3-5 to allow them to assimilate learning with ease. The topics of the four books are and making friends (a social skill), sequencing (a cognitive skill), building confidence (and emotional skill), and playground safety (a health & safety skill), respectively. All the books are set in the "See-And-Learn City".

I was sent a series of books by Charlesbridge Publishing - Stuart J. Murphy's I See I Learn Series. I was SO impressed - this is a series that is designed for the preschool age - to help them learn skills that will aid in school readiness and even everyday life. The series is organized around 4 learning domains: Social Skills, Health and Safety Skills, Emotional Skills, and Cognitive Skills.

The characters are fun and our little ones will relate to the struggles they face in their everyday lives. We all can relate to topics like making friends, building confidence, staying safe, etc. Great series - enjoyable and yet teachable moments - I love that!!

Stuart J. Murphy has created a new preschool book series designed to help young children learn skills important for school readiness and daily life. The books focus on social skills, health and safety skills, emotional skills, and cognitive skills.

Drawing on many kids' visual learning style, Murphy's new I See I Learn books feature inset pictures, diagrams, and highlighted words to reinforce the lessons told in these simple stories.

My kids and I recently checked out the first four of the books in this series:

Emma's Friendwich, which teaches the social skill of making friends.

Freda Plans a Picnic, which teaches the cognitive skill of sequencing.

Good Job, Ajay!, which teaches the emotional skill of building confidence.

Percy Plays It Safe, which teaches the health and safety skill of playground safety.

The books are very cute and fun to read. Each of the books features the same cast of characters so kids can get familiar with the whole group. The characters are kids, who are actually little animals. If asked to identify each animal, I'm not sure I could, but they're still cute.

My favorite character was Percy the Giraffe. I also very much enjoyed Pickle the dog.

There are a couple of features I really liked about the books. At the beginning of each is a map of the town. My kids all love maps, so they pored over these to see where each character lived in relation to buildings such as the school.Each book also features an "A Closer Look" section at the end of the book to reinforce the lessons learned in the story. This is a nice way to really solidify the skills that the book is trying to teach.

For instance, at the end of Percy Plays It Safe, questions and pictures prompt the child reader to determine when Percy is playing safely and unsafely. The questions also ask the reader to think for him or herself as well, with questions such as "How do you play safe?" "What are some good rules for safe play?"

There is also an activity prompt at the end of each Closer Look section, asking the reader to draw, act out, or pretend something related to the story.

The books are very cute and a lot of fun. My children enjoyed listening to me reading them, but they weren't immediately drawn to them. (To be fair, my children are all a little older than the target audience here, which is preschoolers and pre-k.) I do like the books because they are books that teach skills and are not based on pop culture characters, like so many children's books these days are. They're definitely worth checking out.

Series Review: From the author of the MathStart series (HarperCollins, 1996-2006) comes a new educational series designed to provide visual and verbal lessons for pre-kindergarten readers on health and safety as well as social and cognitive skills. Each story introduces a few concepts, which are highlighted throughout the story via inset pictures and words in bold. In Emma’s Friendwich, Emma has moved to a new house and wants to make friends. When she sees a girl in the next yard, she finds that “smile,” “ask,” “help,” and “share” bring about the desired result of making two new friends. With Freda Plans a Picnic, Freda demonstrates each step needed for a picnic. Finally, Percy Plays It Safe shows Percy acting like a monster at the playground and taking many dangerous chances and finally getting hurt. Each book contains colorful cartoon-like illustrations that work well with the text to capture a young readers’ attention and easily demonstrate the topics. Each book includes a page of questions for the reader to contemplate. Despite the distracting insets and questions, these are useful additions to libraries looking to expand their collections of titles on manners, behavior, moving and friends.

Stuart J. Murphy's I See I Learn picture books from Charlesbridge Publishing teach preschoolers social, emotional, cognitive, health and safety skills.

Initially, I didn't think JJ would like these books - because sometimes books with overt lessons aren't engaging. However, it was quite the opposite. When we first read Emma's Friendwich, we read it several times in a row because she loved it! And, the other books, too.

JJ and I both like that the books have the all same characters who live near each other in the See-and-Learn City. A map showing where the characters live begins each book.

The series began with: Freda Plans a Picnic, Emma's Friendwich, Percy Plays It Safe, and Good Job, Ajay!

Good Job, Ajay! is a book about building confidence. When Ajay thinks throwing a ball is too hard, his friend, Freda, reminds him that he's learned hard things before like swimming.

Emma's Friendwich is a book about making new friends. When Emma is new to the neighborhood, she sees another girl and figures out how to make friends by smiling, saying hello, and asking if she can play. What a great model to teach children a practical life skill!

Percy Plays It Safe teaches playground safety.

Freda Plans a Picnic teaches sequencing.