Grab a helmet and a caregiver or friend, then—go! (Board book. 2-4)
Over 50 bikes of all sizes, shapes, and purposes wheel across and even off the 20 pages of this compact board book.
Little ones will study the busy illustrations of exotic versions of this iconic means of transportation. An invitation to count—“Old bikes. / New bikes. / Built-for-two bikes. // Bikes with three wheels. / Bikes with four. / Doesn’t that bike need one more?”—is paired with a picture of a brown-skinned, helmet-wearing child popping a wheelie and followed by a dog pushing the bike’s missing front wheel. The same dog can be found on every spread, and every bike rider is wearing a helmet. The bikes are historical (a pennyfarthing high-wheeler) or fantastical (bikes disguised as a ladybug, shark, and even eyeglasses). One even has eight shoes spaced around each wheel instead of conventional tires. All are recognizable as bikes, even by toddlers still limited to scoot bikes or tricycles. The colorful and active graphics clearly convey the excitement, freedom, and joy bike riding brings to this multicultural cast. Two minor quibbles: The details are small, limiting enjoyment to children with fairly well-developed eyesight; and unfortunately, the black tires of a fairly magnificent pony-bike are lost against a dark background and the training wheels on that bike are distorted. Otherwise, it’s ready to roll.
Grab a helmet and a caregiver or friend, then—go! (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63217-220-4
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
The history of music is a big topic, and more-nuanced explanation is needed than the format allows.
This ambitious board book aims to promote an eclectic appreciation for music of all kinds.
Music, from drumming to computer-generated sound, is introduced as a linear historical sequence with two pages devoted to each of 11 styles, including medieval European, orchestral, blues, and more. Most of the musicians are portrayed as children, many with darker skin tones and with hairstyles and garb commonly associated with each type of music. Radford works in a retro cartoon mode, varying his presentation slightly with each new musical style but including a dancing dachshund on almost every spread, presumably to enhance child appeal. Unfortunately, the book just can’t succeed in reducing such a wide range of musical styles to toddler-appropriate language. The first two spreads read: “We start with clapping, tapping, and drums. // Lutes, flutes, and words are what we become.” The accompanying illustrations show, respectively, half-naked drummers and European court figures reading, writing, and playing a flute. Both spreads feature both brown-skinned and pale-skinned figures. At first reading this seems innocent enough, but the implication that clapping and drumming are somehow less civilized or sophisticated than a European style is reinforced in Stosuy’s glossary of music terms. He describes “Prehistoric Music” as “rhythmic music [made] with rocks, sticks, bones, and…voices,” while “Renaissance Music” is defined as “multiple melodies played at the same time.”
The history of music is a big topic, and more-nuanced explanation is needed than the format allows. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0941-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A Christmas train book that gets derailed by a lacking story arc.
Not quite the Polar Express….
Sobel’s rhyming text fails to deliver a clear premise for the eponymous goodnight train’s Christmas Eve progress through the pages, and Huliska-Beith’s acrylic paintings embellished with fabric and paper collage don’t clarify the storytelling. At the start of the picture book, a bevy of anthropomorphic animals decorates a rather rickety-looking engine, and then human children gather around and pile into train cars that look like beds and cribs. The train follows a track, seemingly in pursuit of Santa’s sleigh, but to what end isn’t clear. They travel “through a town of gingerbread” and through the woods to find the sleigh blocking the tracks and the reindeer snoozing while, mystifyingly, Santa counts some sheep. Perching the sleigh on the train’s cowcatcher, they all proceed to the North Pole, where the “elves all cheer. / Santa’s here until next year!” But then the goodnight train just…leaves, “heading home on Christmas Eve.” Was this a dream? It definitely wasn’t a story with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. Santa’s face is never seen; the human children and elves are diverse.
A Christmas train book that gets derailed by a lacking story arc. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-61840-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
