Cuddle up to share these hugs and kisses.
This cheerful board book is a sugary paean to love.
A smiling panda with black felt arms and ears on the cover looks ready for a hug. Sadly, that is the only tactile element. Within, rhyming text dances across each page using a typeface designed to look handwritten. Brightly colored parent-and-child animal pairs illustrate each verse, with stitching outlining key features. The lines alternate between “Hug me when…” and “Kiss me when…,” with the critical verb sweetly decorated. Situations described are common experiences for toddlers. A baby bird in a pram is clearly taking a walk, while on the opposite page two ducks “quack and talk.” Unfortunately, rhyming “zoo” with “boo-boo” requires an extra syllable, which throws off the rhyme scheme for that stanza. The final double-page spread shows only one of each animal, each with a heart-shaped “kiss” stitched on its cheek. The text spans both pages, which could confuse readers who have learned to anticipate the story's pattern. That's probably OK, since the rhyme is intact: “Hugs and Kisses everywhere we go— / because I love, love, love you so!” Saying it three times may be a bit much, but most tots enjoy hearing they are loved.
Cuddle up to share these hugs and kisses. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-92796-3
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers.
A board-book ode to parental love as old as the dinosaurs.
A line of text on the left of each spread reads like a dinosaur-themed valentine that a third grader might choose, with punishingly punny wordplay that incorporates dinosaur-related words. On the facing page a dinosaur pair—a baby and an adult—gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes against whimsical, pastel-hued prehistoric-ish backgrounds. In smaller print, in all caps, at the bottom of the left page is the scientific name for the dinosaur referenced by the text and picture followed by a helpful phonetic pronunciation guide. White-outlined footprints appear next to their names, though the white is sometimes difficult to see against the pastel pages. Ten of the best-known dinosaurs are included. Twisting the dinosaur names to fit the loving sentiments succeeds some of the time but more often results in tortured text, well beyond the understanding of the board book audience. The line accompanying two hugging velociraptors, for instance, is just confusing: “Wrap-TOR arms around me, / with you I’ll always stay.” Others are just plain clumsy: “I-wanna-GUANODON you kisses, / I truly just adore you.” Very young children, even those fascinated by dinosaurs, will not get it. Older dinosaur fans will be put off by the babyish format.
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2295-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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