"A clever introduction to theater for young audiences or performers (and an inspiration for post-bedtime play). (Picture book. 3-6)"
Usually it is the sleepless child who invents a nocturnal story for his or her stuffed animals to enact; Boyd imagines the reverse.
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"Contemplative children will spend hours on each page, noticing such subtleties as reappearing animals and the slowly rising moon over the course of one night in the forest. (Picture book. 3-6)"
"Inspired and inspiring, this is creative genius at work. (Picture book. 2-6)"
In this wordless picture book, youngsters follow a boy through the seasons and see how the natural world influences his indoor projects and outdoor activities.
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A little boy dresses his black dog from head to toe in everything from underpants to jacket and socks: "I like the shirt with stripes, do you? Up, Black Dog, It's too hard to dress you when you're lying down." The little boy is clearly in charge, choosing the various items of clothing and colors for his pet's outfit, mixing and matching stripes, dots, and solids. He then retreats behind the puppet stage to dress himself, emerging as a canine complete in black doggy costume. Patience, perseverance, and playful role reversal are casually portrayed through this genial display of a preschooler's daily dressing ritual, one that parents and children will recognize. Basic outlined gouache illustrations in bright teals and purples delineate both boy and dog's fun-loving actions. Sweet toddler amusement. (Picture book. 1-3)Read full book review >
The host to a set of feathered and furry friends in his garden is supplanted by the female Lulu Crow in this retelling of Johnny Crow's Garden (1903), with full-color gouache paintings to replace the original droll pen-and-ink line drawings by Leslie Brooke. The text is essentially the same, still appearing in rhymed couplets, "And the Lion/Had a green-and-yellow Tie on/In Lulu Crow's Garden." Some repetition of the refrain is cut to shorten the story; a few words and ideas that may not be familiar to contemporary children have been modified. Instead of Fox putting all the animals in stocks, they're shut inside a blue box; the stork no longer gives a philosophic talk, nor does the elephant say something irrelevant. Boyd's simplified shapes may lack the range of human expression that so characterizes the original, but the illustrator makes up for it in playful details: Lion lounging on a garden bench; Crane sporting an umbrella in the rain; and Pig dancing on a jig. Blocks of pastel colors are rolled out like swatches of fabric to create a stretch of sea-green lawn or a patch of periwinkle-blue sky. Tiger lilies, sunflowers, hollyhocks, and morning glories serve as props that brighten each background. Young ones will enjoy the superficially silly rhyme, but don't let them miss the nonsense of the original. (Picture book. 2-5)
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After Willy's indulgent parents finally put him to bed, he imagines who might still be awake: a bird that carries him through the air; a deer that gives him an apple; fish; the wind. Each of these eventually goes to sleep, murmuring ``Sweet dreams.'' In the end, a star takes Willy home and tucks him in. It's all a pleasant variation on a familiar theme, although not particularly imaginative. Boyd's illustrations, always her strong suit, are attractive: softly glowing colors with muted blues and brighter pinks predominate; stylized figures, though they convey little character or feeling, are skillfully combined for a pleasingly decorative effect. An appealing bedtime story. (Picture book. 2-6)
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The day Dad's new computer arrives, Willy goes to the office with him to spend a happy day playing with the boxes, building everything from a plane to a circus. The resulting constructions are more the products of Boyd's (and Willy's) imagination than likely accomplishments of a preschooler, and are only occasionally linked to his real experiences (tired, he builds a house and falls asleep in it at the end of the day). Still, the make-believe adventures are nicely realized in Boyd's gentle, stylized art. (Picture book. 2-6)
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