Lively illustrations give oodles of discussion topics, making this a book young children will love listening to over and...
Page after rhyming page, playful words dance from beginning to end in this read-aloud for the very young.
“Stretchy / yawny / wide awake at dawn-y.” Waking with a morning stretch, one child starts the action as different children are shown throughout a day full of inside and outside activities. According to the second-person text, each child is “a buzzy, busy bee” until they fall into bed, “comfy, cozy” at the end of the story. The diverse cast of young children interact with one another in scenes brimming with exciting details. As the day moves from morning to evening, the journey includes a summertime backyard garden, a cheery, toy-filled playroom, a make-believe theater complete with an audience of stuffed animals, and the craft room in a library. Children will enjoy the singsong pace of the text as they follow the characters from place to place. Little ones can point out familiar events (pre–Covid-19, that is) such as going to the market and stopping at the playground on the way home. The endpapers are just as much fun as the book. Seventeen colorful miniscenes are packed with whimsies of their own. This bonus gives extra material for making up even more stories to entertain wiggly preschoolers. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 75% of actual size.)
Lively illustrations give oodles of discussion topics, making this a book young children will love listening to over and over. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4572-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
This TV rerun in board-book form has nothing new to offer.
Peppa hopes to join her classmates in a Halloween pumpkin competition in this adaptation of a story from the popular British television program Peppa Pig.
With the help of Granny and Grandpa Pig, Peppa turns her giant pumpkin, which is the size of a compact car, into a jack-o’-lantern. The trio is flummoxed when it comes time to transport the pumpkin to the competition, so they call on Miss Rabbit and her helicopter to airlift the pumpkin to the festivities as Peppa and her grandparents ride inside. Peppa arrives just in time for the contest and wins the prize for best flying pumpkin. The scenes look as if they are pulled directly from the television show, right down to the rectangular framing of some of the scenes. While the story is literally nothing new, the text is serviceable, describing the action in two to three sentences per page. The pumpkin-shaped book and orange foil cover will likely attract youngsters, whether they are Peppa fans or not.
This TV rerun in board-book form has nothing new to offer. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-33922-2
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
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