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ABCS OF BALLS

A plain alphabet picture book that drops the ball.

A simple alphabet book that explores balls from around the world—and a few other round objects, as well.

Using minimal text and stock photos from Getty Images, Snyder (Good Day, Broncos, 2014) has created an abstemious alphabet book. Each page features a capital letter in the upper-left or upper-right corner, in aqua, red, or dark gray. The book’s only words are the names of the balls (in colors that match the letters) and a brief activity section after the final ball. Over its course, the book uses 25 types of balls, the planet Earth, and a marble to populate the alphabet (“B” gets both “baseball” and “basketball”). Three of the 25 use descriptions in order to fit the alphabet paradigm (“quick ball,” “unhappy ball,” and “eXtra small ball”). The remaining 22 are predominantly sports balls, save for “disco ball,” “hamster ball,” “origami ball,” “yarn ball,” and “zoo ball.” The stock photos come in a range of sizes and vary from the cartoonish to the realistic. All are shown on a plain, white background; some include shadows, some don’t, and others have partial, cropped shadowing. Most of the words helpfully include the initial sound (phoneme) for the letter, which will allow young children to begin to associate the letter’s sound with its symbol. (Both “cricket ball” and “golf ball,” provide only the hard versions of multisound consonants C and G.) However, much of the allure of simple alphabet books lies in their illustrations, and the stark images here are unsatisfactory. Likewise, the small letters in the pages’ corners don’t effectively reinforce the images’ connections to the alphabet. In a book as spare as this one, the sole use of the text seems to be to introduce the alphabetic principle, but this simple listing of balls doesn’t approach the level of engagement of other, similar books.

A plain alphabet picture book that drops the ball.

Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2014

ISBN: 978-0692245286

Page Count: 30

Publisher: PenDragon Press

Review Posted Online: May 14, 2015

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83271-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

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