Cute but no more than serviceable
Sliding board-book panels illustrate six different animal habitats.
Frost’s colorful, cartoonish critters feature in a guessing game. A question appears on one page: “Who is in the flowerbed, digging up the ground?” In the busy illustration, a rabbit, a cat, or even the worms could be digging. The page opposite each question expands to display the rhymed response and a full image of the heretofor partially hidden animal. (In the garden scene it is a spotted yellow pup.) The sliding pages line up perfectly when closed, but the animals don’t always line up properly when opened. The dolphin seems to be detached from its tail, and the lamb’s back legs connect to its body at an awkward angle. The cadence of the rhymes is sometimes forced, with words chosen because they rhyme, not because they add information. For example, the penguin says, “Cheep cheep cheep!” evidently because “cheep” rhymes with “deep.” Other animals to find include a tiger cub, chick, and bear cub. Initially the sliders are quite stiff but will loosen up with use, but they may not survive the repeated tugs and pulls of inquisitive toddlers. The book’s biggest weakness is that turning the sliding-page design places every other answer on the left instead of the right. This may confuse young children who are just learning that reading (in English) requires looking from left to right.
Cute but no more than serviceable . (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-6801-0514-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character.
One of Boynton's signature characters celebrates Halloween.
It's Halloween time, and Pookie the pig is delighted. Mom helps the little porker pick out the perfect Halloween costume, a process that spans the entire board book. Using an abcb rhyme scheme, Boynton dresses Pookie in a series of cheerful costumes, including a dragon, a bunny, and even a caped superhero. Pookie eventually settles on the holiday classic, a ghost, by way of a bedsheet. Boynton sprinkles in amusing asides to her stanzas as Pookie offers costume commentary ("It's itchy"; "It's hot"; "I feel silly"). Little readers will enjoy the notion of transforming themselves with their own Halloween costumes while reading this book, and a few parents may get some ideas as well. Boynton's clean, sharp illustrations are as good as ever. This is Pookie's first holiday title, but readers will surely welcome more.
A pleasant holiday spent with a perfectly charming character. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-51233-5
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Robin Corey/Random
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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