Parents may well hope that their children don’t pick up Hazel’s beat—but they probably will.
A little composer gets her whole family moving and grooving to her “bop-able” beat, but it's not easy.
Tiny Hazel Nut loves to sing and dance...and she also loves her polka-dot pants. She is literally a hazelnut, with a big round body and little legs and a little puff of hair on either side of her head. Hazel writes a song celebrating her pants one rainy day, then sets out to get her family to sing and dance along with her. Hard as she tries, she can't get Papa (an acorn) to give up his book or Mama (a chestnut) to drop the laundry or brother Wally (a walnut) to abandon his carnival garb to rock out with her. So Hazel calls her Grandma Nut (not readily identifiable), who almost immediately bursts through the door and disco-dances across the floor, also wearing polka-dot pants. When Mama, Papa, and Wally hear the "happy hullabaloo," they can't resist singing and dancing too. It's "Saturday Nut Fever," complete with disco ball and lit-up dance floor. Readers are encouraged to visit TheNutFamily.com to download free songs for singing and dancing. Litwin's jaunty rhyming text has an infectious simplicity, though it's low on content and quickly grows repetitive. Magoon's Adobe Photoshop illustrations are a riot of bright colors and skittish shapes, relying on energy to compensate for occasionally unclear delineation of setting.
Parents may well hope that their children don’t pick up Hazel’s beat—but they probably will. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-32250-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
Leave this on the shelf and take the kids outside to really move.
An interactive board book promises a variety of experiences.
A book that gets kids up and moving sounds like a great idea. The half-circle cutout of the spine and large handle formed by another die cut on the right side are intriguing. Unfortunately, the rhyming instructions for using the book as an exercise prop are confusing. Even adults will find themselves puzzled when told to “paddle the floor,” or to “hang on the handles. Step over the book. / You're a turtle in its shell! Go peek out and look.” The busy pictures shift perspective according to each scenario presented but give few visual clues. For example, the only hint of a dinosaur on the page where readers are told to “put this book to your mouth and let out a roar” like a dinosaur are the teeth that line the edges of what is meant to be a gaping maw. It’s not always obvious whether the book is meant to be facing readers or turned away from them, adding another layer of confusion. Furthermore, many of the instructions run counter to how young children are typically taught to treat books, as when they are told to step on it and then waddle or to lift it with their feet. The relatively thin board pages and weak handles will soon be torn by normal handling; following the directions in the text will only hasten the destruction.
Leave this on the shelf and take the kids outside to really move. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-8733-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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