Future chefs may enjoy flicking the moving parts back and forth, but only grown-ups who know their ways around a cookbook...
Sturdy sliders invite budding bakers to measure out flour and sugar, mix ingredients, and decorate a four-egg “let’s pretend cake!”
A “pretend cake” is the only sort that will come out of this recipe. In the cartoon illustrations, cute mice in toques pose next to the required bowls, kitchen implements, and ingredients. With sliding tabs, a stream of sugar pours into a bowl as readings on a scale change, a mixer and a spoon can be moved back and forth, and temperature and time set on an oven. Baumann only suggests adult help for this last step—leaving everything else, including taking out the hot pan and flipping it over, to the child. Though it is a common practice in international recipes (this is a French import), real beginners may be confused to see the flour and sugar quantified in “cups” in English measure but “grams” in the metric equivalents. Prospective bakers are also instructed during the preparation to separate egg whites and yolks without being shown how. Moreover, the direction to put the cake pan in the oven is mistakenly repeated on a later page. Worst, when it comes time to pour on the raspberry sauce at the end, a second, smaller cake suddenly appears atop the first—since layers were previously unmentioned, readers will be hard-pressed to know which layer they have measurements for and which they don’t.
Future chefs may enjoy flicking the moving parts back and forth, but only grown-ups who know their ways around a cookbook are going to get a passable sponge cake from this. (carrying handle) (Novelty. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 979-1-0276-0140-0
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon.
This bedtime book offers simple rhymes, celebrates the numbers one through 10, and encourages the counting of objects.
Each double-page spread shows a different toddler-and-caregiver pair, with careful attention to different skin tones, hair types, genders, and eye shapes. The pastel palette and soft, rounded contours of people and things add to the sleepy litany of the poems, beginning with “Goodnight, one fork. / Goodnight, one spoon. / Goodnight, one bowl. / I’ll see you soon.” With each number comes a different part in a toddler’s evening routine, including dinner, putting away toys, bathtime, and a bedtime story. The white backgrounds of the pages help to emphasize the bold representations of the numbers in both written and numerical forms. Each spread gives multiple opportunities to practice counting to its particular number; for example, the page for “four” includes four bottles of shampoo and four inlaid dots on a stool—beyond the four objects mentioned in the accompanying rhyme. Each home’s décor, and the array and types of toys and accoutrements within, shows a decidedly upscale, Western milieu. This seems compatible with the patronizing author’s note to adults, which accuses “the media” of indoctrinating children with fear of math “in our country.” Regardless, this sweet treatment of numbers and counting may be good prophylaxis against math phobia.
The joys of counting combine with pretty art and homage to Goodnight Moon. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93378-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name.
A brief rhyming board book for toddlers.
Spurr's earlier board books (In the Garden and At the Beach, both 2012; In the Woods, 2013) featured an adventuresome little boy. Her new slice-of-life story stars an equally joyful little girl who takes pleasure in flying a new kite while not venturing far off the walkway. Oliphant's expressive and light-filled watercolors clearly depict the child's emotions—eager excitement on the way to the park, delight at the kite's flight in the wind, shock when the kite breaks free, dejection, and finally relief and amazement. The rhymes work, though uneven syllable counts in some stanzas interrupt the smooth flow of the verse. The illustrations depict the child with her mass of windblown curls, brown skin, and pronounced facial features as African-American. Her guardian (presumably her mother) is also brown-skinned. It is refreshing to see an African-American family settled comfortably in a suburban setting with single-family homes and a park where the family dog does not need to be leashed.
A gentle outing for children who are ready for stories of everyday life rather than just objects to name. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56145-854-7
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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