There is no question that the book is an attractive novelty, but, as with others in its series, it will serve its audience...
The Dickens classic, reduced to 12 words and illustrated with felt dolls.
Readers familiar with the Wangs’ Cozy Classics will be unsurprised by their treatment of the weighty 19th-century tome. The action plays out in tableaux, one word per double-page spread: “boy / help / old / pretty / cry / money / city / manners / me! / sorry / fire / garden.” Some illustrations work better than others. “Old” Miss Havisham sports white hair and fairly credible wrinkles in her wedding gown, and green-eyed, creamy-skinned Estella is arguably “pretty.” But the tableau for “help,” in which Pip meets Magwitch in the graveyard, depicts a looming, shackled, bleeding man in rags and a boy holding a pie in one hand and evidently brandishing a knife in the other; readers will wonder why the word is not “fight” or “fright.” As a grown Pip contemplates “money,” he is shown at a table with two sacks bearing the symbol for the pound sterling. Though appropriate to the setting and the original work, it is also likely to be a mystifying image for American children, who will see no money at all. Pip unfolds a napkin before a grand repast, but the word it illustrates is not “repast,” “feast,” “dinner,” or even “food”; it is “manners.” The backdrops for the tableaux are sumptuous, and the attention to detail is admirable. But as a conveyance for meaning, this book is a flimsy one—and as a redaction of Great Expectations, it is ludicrous.
There is no question that the book is an attractive novelty, but, as with others in its series, it will serve its audience better as a teething toy than a gateway to literacy . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5243-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 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
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on...
An exploration of the human body through colorful photos.
Every other double-page spread labels the individual parts on one major area: head, torso, back, arm and leg. Ethnically diverse boy-girl pairs serve as models as arrows point to specific features and captions float nearby. While the book usefully mentions rarely depicted body parts, such as eyebrow, armpit and shin, some of the directional arrows are unclear. The arrow pointing at a girl’s shoulder hits her in the upper arm, and the belly button is hard is distinguish from the stomach (both are concealed by shirts). Facts about the human body (“Guess what? You have tiny hairs in your nose that keep out dirt”) appear on alternating spreads along with photos of kids in action. Baby Animals, another title in the Look & Learn series, uses an identical format to introduce readers to seal pups, leopard cubs, elephant calves, ducklings and tadpoles. In both titles, the final spread offers a review of the information and encourages readers to match baby animals to their parents or find body parts on a photo of kids jumping on a trampoline.
Clear nonfiction for the very young is hard to come by, and it appears that the Look & Learn series may finally be on the right track despite earlier titles that were much too conceptual for the audience. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4263-1483-4
Page Count: 24
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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