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I LIKE FRUIT

PETIT COLLAGE

Siminovich’s stylish collages join the plethora of concept books that marry food with color. Red (strawberry, raspberry, cherries), green (apple, kiwi, grapes), yellow (pear, banana, lemon) and orange (orange, cantaloupe, peach) each get a double-page spread, with blue (blueberries) and purple (plum) getting short shrift at the end. With the exception of the last two, each color comprises the upper-left quadrant of recto, with the other three quadrants occupied by the three fruits in question; verso finds one fruit reproduced full-page with a touch-and-feel element incorporated into the collage; the smooth, rubbery apple skin is particularly effective. It’s been done before, but the sophistication of the presentation makes this one worth paying attention to. I Like Bugs (ISBN: 978-0-7636-4802-2) counts insects from one to five with similar touch-and-feel collage work. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)

Pub Date: April 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-7636-4803-9

Page Count: 10

Publisher: Templar/Candlewick

Review Posted Online: June 3, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2010

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BONNIE'S BLUE HOUSE

This color-concept book from newcomer Asbury has much going for it. The spare text (``I am Bonnie and this is my cat, Bluebonnet'') and the two-color illustrations (black and blue on a bed of white) are simple, direct, and oddly comforting. Bonnie recounts a day in her life: She introduces readers to her home, cavorts with her pals in a tree fort and swimming pool, sups, watches TV, reads her dad a bedtime story. For the most part, Asbury has chosen the vehicles for his color with a nod toward familiarity—blue water, blueberry pie, blue eyes (small, ghoulish buttons)—and sometimes with real invention: the flicker of the cathode ray, the glow of moonlight. The blue tree, on the other hand, is discordant. Two companion volumes, Rusty's Red Vacation (ISBN 0-8050-4021-8) and Yolanda's Yellow School (- 4023-4), take Asbury's color message aptly into those realms. (Picture book. 2-5)

Pub Date: April 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-8050-4022-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1997

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BOW-WOW’S COLORFUL LIFE

The little terrier from the sublimely surreal Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug (2007) has moved to board books, a format well-suited to his colorful, graphic simplicity. Here Bow-Wow tugs a “Red!” sock off a human foot, revealing an “Orange!” one and so on to “Purple!” and, finally, naked tootsies: “Lick!” In each spread, the left-hand image depicts Bow-Wow beginning to pull the sock, the right-hand image showing the sock mostly pulled off with the next-colored sock beneath it and a quizzical expression on Bow-Wow’s face. Simple enough for babies to work on the concept, weird enough to appeal to parental readers again and again. Companion Bow-Wow 12 Months Running (ISBN: 978-0-15-206558-4) is a little on the complex side for the baby half of the audience. (6-18 mos.)

Pub Date: April 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-15-206564-5

Page Count: 18

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2009

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