Charmingly fun.
Search the jungle for the missing tiger.
Tiger is missing! Where can he be? Addressing readers directly, this book takes them through a series of false leads throughout a vibrant jungle filled with life. A striped tail, for example, turns out to be a snake, tiger-sharp teeth are revealed to belong to a crocodile, and it seems the curly whiskers are actually the feathers of a tropical parrot. Finally, readers find the tiger asleep in his cave—and when he wakes up, he’s ready to play! Each page of this lift-the-flap board book features clever comparisons between tigers and other animals in the jungle. Companion title Let’s Find the Penguin is a similarly entertaining if not so coherent tour of polar regions, introducing young readers to animals and terrain typical of a frozen ecosystem. It, however, commits the too-common sin of conflating Antarctica with the Arctic, placing a mélange of elements in the same implied environment: penguins, puffins, and polar bears; trees, icebergs, and, cringe-inducingly, igloos. In both, interactions are well designed, ranging from soft felt flaps sure to delight little fingers to precisely cut peepholes on the intricately illustrated pages. Likewise, the pictures, rendered in cool, soothing colors, are beautifully thought out, including just the right amount of detail to allow readers to discover something new with each return visit.
Charmingly fun. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68010-583-4
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come.
Little Blue Truck and his pal Toad meet friends old and new on a springtime drive through the country.
This lift-the-flap, interactive entry in the popular Little Blue Truck series lacks the narrative strength and valuable life lessons of the original Little Blue Truck (2008) and its sequel, Little Blue Truck Leads the Way (2009). Both of those books, published for preschoolers rather than toddlers, featured rich storylines, dramatic, kinetic illustrations, and simple but valuable life lessons—the folly of taking oneself too seriously, the importance of friends, and the virtue of taking turns, for example. At about half the length and with half as much text as the aforementioned titles, this volume is a much quicker read. Less a story than a vernal celebration, the book depicts a bucolic drive through farmland and encounters with various animals and their young along the way. Beautifully rendered two-page tableaux teem with butterflies, blossoms, and vibrant pastel, springtime colors. Little Blue greets a sheep standing in the door of a barn: “Yoo-hoo, Sheep! / Beep-beep! / What’s new?” Folding back the durable, card-stock flap reveals the barn’s interior and an adorable set of twin lambs. Encounters with a duck and nine ducklings, a cow with a calf, a pig with 10 (!) piglets, a family of bunnies, and a chicken with a freshly hatched chick provide ample opportunity for counting and vocabulary work.
Uncomplicated fun that sets readers up for the earlier, more-complicated books to come. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-93809-0
Page Count: 16
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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