Indestructibles: Old MacDonald Had a Farm: Chew Proof · Rip Proof · Nontoxic · 100% Washable (Book for Babies, Newborn Books, Safe to Chew) Paperback – February 3, 2011

Review summary:Pros: Easily washable (dishwasher or laundry), truly indestructible, easily portable, fun images, baby loves them, conveys different ethnicity/culture than my own, at least conveys a story (unlike most of the other Indestructible titles)Cons: Story is very, very short and words (just the nursery rhyme) appear on back cover rather than on each pageMy son loves his Indestructibles books! He has 7 or 8 of them now. He is just over 1 year old now and I got him his first ones used at a yard sale when he was 5 months old. They really are indestructible: they withstand so much abuse (teething, crushing, tug of war, and more) and then I pop them in the dishwasher to clean them up (you can also put them in the washing machine). The bright colors and fun images never seem to fade regardless of how used they are. I actually prefer it when they are broken in - much softer. You can even iron them (with a sheet or some other colorfast fabric that can take the heat between the book and the iron) to make them flat again. I love that they are so thin that you can take them anywhere. I can easily slip one into my tiny purse to take on the go. When we took a vacation recently, we brought a couple of these books to "read" as bedtime stories instead of his board books so we could pack light (we made up stories for each of them because they don't actually have words or much of a story… Read on for more on that). These books are worth every penny!My only complaint is that none of the books are ones you sit down and read together. I hate that! I want to read him a story. Yes, I understand that these have a key role to play in literacy because it encourages free exploration and communication about the images and blah, blah, blah. Still, I want to book where I have the option to read the story. The nursery rhyme versions like this one I'm reviewing now are a step up from the others that we have because at least it tells a story that follows the nursery rhyme. However, each page only has a few words that you speak and the words appear on the back of the book, not on the page you were reading. If I could leave a 4.5 star rating on this, I would because you don't really read them.Was this review helpful for you? If so, please click the "Yes" button below. If not, feel free to let me know why and I'll do my best to improve it. :)

At about 5-6 months old my baby developed an insatiable taste for paper... she loved to crumple it, crunch it, wad it up, and put it in her mouth. After a couple of Sundays with corners of church bulletins chewed off and wads of soggy paper pulled from my baby's mouth in my purse, I knew we had a problem.The "indestructibles" books seemed like the perfect solution. At first I thought it was too good to be true, but I bought one to try it out anyway. Sure enough, my baby product tested it like a star. She tried to rip, she tried to chew, she tried to moisten the pages in order to rip and chew by sucking/gnawing on the book for extended periods... all to no avail! Even after being jammed in the diaper bag and crumpled by other toys, these books remarkably retain/rebend to their original shape. And to baby, they look and feel and SOUND like paper!Overall, GREAT quality product, beyond DURABLE, and great pictures to boot! (Though, for our purposes, this part was truly optional) Some reviewers have complained about the lack of words. I was a bit disappointed by that at first too when I first flipped through the books in a store, but then I realized, "Do I really need a book to say 'Deer' for me to point it out and tell my baby, 'That is a deer!'" Likewise, with some of the Nursery Rhyme varieties of these books, I KNOW the Nursery Rhyme, and my grabby chewy baby rarely has patience to sit and listen to a story in sequential order anyway... and when she does, these probably aren't the books we're reading! (Again, I bought them for the indestructible quality) That said, I do like the themes, the rhymes, and the multi-culturalness of many of the books in this series.The book does exactly what it claims to do and beautifully so! But, one caveat...If your baby likes to eat paper like mine, you may just be out of luck. After she realized the book meant it when it said 'Indestructible' she set it aside and went right back to eating her sister's school work and my church bulletins!

Great books for babies and toddlers to learn nursery rhymes

There is no story

Dont even feel like giving 1 star. Bought it for 1 year old baby. Book though appear to be non chewable, the illudtrations are absolutely poor and extremely. Dont buy otherwise you will repent just like me

If you have trouble keeping your little tots hands off paper and magazines that are lying around the house, then these books are ideal. There were squeals of excitement from my little girl when she first started to handle to paper. And I'm relieved to not have to fish out chewed balls of paper from her mouth!!

Wonderful book!! The colours are gorgeous, the drawings very realistic and the little ones can do absolutely everything they want with it! I will recommand it without any hesitation!