For settings that can’t get enough of farm-animal board books
Yet another board book designed to introduce farm animals to young children.
The twist in this offering, a follow-up to Night-Night Forest Friends (2013), is that initially the animals are asleep. Readers meet them as the sun rises over idyllic farm scenes rendered digitally in ink and paint. The first spread is quite dark, with a haloed sun that goes from beige to deep purple as the concentric arcs move up the page. A dark red barn sits on a hill above gray-green rolling meadows. Subsequent pages employ the same muted palette in ever lighter shades. Each spread features a standard farm animal: ducks, dogs, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, with chickens and a cartoonish rooster occupying two spreads. The surprising addition of llamas on the fourth spread is apt as domesticated llamas become more common in North America. This must be a free-range farm; the second-to-last spread shows all the animals on both sides of a pasture fence. The final illustration mimics the opening spread, with the animals in the fields and a yellow sun in the sky. Rhyming text identifies each animal and hints at its habits, with some artistic license: How sheep would open a gate, as they are urged to do, is unclear. Although the wake-up motif is fairly fresh, it’s not enough to make this book top of the crop.
For settings that can’t get enough of farm-animal board books . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-8624-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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