A lovingly packaged collection of songs worth singing.
A collection of songs and rhymes for infants featuring an accompanying music CD and analysis of developmental benefits.
In her second book, Cobb (I’m a Little Teapot!, 1996) explains how this compilation borrows from 12 years of experience teaching preschool programs for infants, toddlers, parents and caregivers, paired with her research into cognitive science and language acquisition. Introductory information on child development serves as the supportive springboard for soon-to-be-singing parents. Cobb provides a short but fascinating look at the development of some of the brain’s processes, both before and after birth, several of which she refers to as brief “windows of opportunity”—the crucial periods of time when external stimulation can help the brain develop into its greatest potential. At these times especially, according to Cobb, rhymes, songs and stories can nurture an infant’s physical and emotional growth. A timely song can soothe and relax a crying newborn, engage and encourage creative playtime or build memory skills and introduce vocabulary words to foster early literacy. Because hearing is the first sense to develop—after about six months in the womb—a mother’s voice becomes supremely comforting to her child, so Cobb encourages even the tuneless among us to persevere because “[y]our voice is the voice your baby loves best.” For readers interested in teaching this parent-child program, Cobb also includes four helpful and detailed examples of classroom instructions with suggestions for recruitment, setting, pacing, record keeping and registration. The delightful and expansive collection of over 350 rhymes and songs—36 featured on the accompanying CD—and 10 stories will add to any parent or caregiver’s repertoire.
A lovingly packaged collection of songs worth singing.Pub Date: May 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-0969866619
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Black Sheep Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history.
In spare verse, Lowry reflects on moments in her childhood, including the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.
When she was a child, Lowry played at Waikiki Beach with her grandmother while her father filmed. In the old home movie, the USS Arizona appears through the mist on the horizon. Looking back at her childhood in Hawaii and then Japan, Lowry reflects on the bombings that began and ended a war and how they affected and connected everyone involved. In Part 1, she shares the lives and actions of sailors at Pearl Harbor. Part 2 is stories of civilians in Hiroshima affected by the bombing. Part 3 presents her own experience as an American in Japan shortly after the war ended. The poems bring the haunting human scale of war to the forefront, like the Christmas cards a sailor sent days before he died or the 4-year-old who was buried with his red tricycle after Hiroshima. All the personal stories—of sailors, civilians, and Lowry herself—are grounding. There is heartbreak and hope, reminding readers to reflect on the past to create a more peaceful future. Lowry uses a variety of poetry styles, identifying some, such as triolet and haiku. Pak’s graphite illustrations are like still shots of history, adding to the emotion and somber feeling. He includes some sailors of color among the mostly white U.S. forces; Lowry is white.
A beautiful, powerful reflection on a tragic history. (author’s note, bibliography) (Memoir/poetry. 10-14)Pub Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-12940-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
PROFILES
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems.
Rhyming poems introduce children to anthropomorphized trucks of all sorts, as well as the jobs that they do.
Adorable multiethnic children are the drivers of these 16 trucks—from construction equipment to city trucks, rescue vehicles and a semi—easily standing in for readers, a point made very clear on the final spread. Varying rhyme schemes and poem lengths help keep readers’ attention. For the most part, the rhymes and rhythms work, as in this, from “Cement Mixer”: “No time to wait; / he can’t sit still. / He has to beg your pardon. / For if he dawdles on the way, / his slushy load will harden.” Slonim’s trucks each sport an expressive pair of eyes, but the anthropomorphism stops there, at least in the pictures—Vestergaard sometimes takes it too far, as in “Bulldozer”: “He’s not a bully, either, / although he’s big and tough. / He waits his turn, plays well with friends, / and pushes just enough.” A few trucks’ jobs get short shrift, to mixed effect: “Skid-Steer Loader” focuses on how this truck moves without the typical steering wheel, but “Semi” runs with a royalty analogy and fails to truly impart any knowledge. The acrylic-and-charcoal artwork, set against white backgrounds, keeps the focus on the trucks and the jobs they are doing.
While there are many rhyming truck books out there, this stands out for being a collection of poems. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5078-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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