Good, silly fun wrapped in crisp graphics.
Robot extraterrestrials encounter a farm on Earth.
A family of bots, each carrying a handy digital device called a Zot, head away from their mod-looking single-occupant space vehicles to explore the moon. All, that is, except Blip, who spies Earth and heads there instead. Staccato rhyming text covers Blip’s exploration, with his Zot warning him each time he’s about to encounter something new. “ ‘Blip, stop!’ / ‘Zot, wazzzzzdot?’ ” Broad visual cues, which at first only show parts of the whole, let kids in on the fun—they’ll know that muddy pig by its curly pink tail. Blip encounters boxes of fresh, crunchy vegetables, three aggressive chickens, a dairy cow and more. Each new discovery reveals more of what is obviously a farm. After Blip drives a tractor—with predictable results involving a tree stump—the mother bot arrives, looking quite displeased. His Zot summarizes all that Blip has encountered (Slack shows the farm denizens in silhouette above their heads), and the bots happily explore. Mother collects her explorer for departure—but where is Blip? Driving Sunnyland Farm’s veggies to town, of course. Slack’s digital paintings couple stylized, sharp-edged images and a wild color palette of magenta, chartreuse, blue and orange to convey an ET’s-eye view of familiar toddler icons.
Good, silly fun wrapped in crisp graphics. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-8347-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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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