I buy kids books to read to my young adult son who has severe mental retardation so I look for slightly different things than I would look for in a book for a neurotypical toddler. Both the text and the illustrations worked for us - the story is simple but not too annoying for me to read it frequently. The rhymes are natural and flow nicely. The pictures support the story, rather than being an integral part of the story as they are in some books. Let me take a minute to explain that... in some books, the listener must pay attention to the pictures to "get" the story. I look for books that you could understand even if you're listening with your eyes closed. This is one of those books.