A handsome mixed bag.
From morning to night, various forest creatures cavort in idyllic scenes.
Each double-page spread includes full-bleed art and two lines of a rhyming quatrain that carries over to the page turn: “Sun rises. / Bird sings. // Squirrel wakes. / Branches swing.” Bees fly, fish swing, rabbits leap, and more, and in the end, Owl hoots and awakens as several diurnal critters curl up for the night. Thompson’s richly colored, stylized cartoons rendered with a thick, black line and layered with fabriclike accents are an uneven mix of styles. Some are reminiscent of folk art (a school of fish), others are quirky cartoons (a squirrel swings monkey-style from a tree), and still others are graphically simple (a rabbit bounds through the air). The book suffers from its relatively small (6 inches square) trim size. Some of the animals are too large for the scene or too many critters, as in the finale, are crammed on a spread, giving it all a claustrophobic feel. Despite these flaws, Thompson's talent manages to shine through, boding well for subsequent outings.
A handsome mixed bag. (Board-book. 1-3)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7142-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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 excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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