Appropriate for Valentine’s Day or any day.
By exploring the smell, taste, sound, and feel of love, a cherub and some human children offer young readers a glimpse of what love can look like.
Although the title character’s name borders on saccharine, this volume has a genuine sweetness that’s hard to resist. Certainly, it should please young children, who lack such sophisticated prejudices. Author/illustrator Hall offers up a sampling of the ways we say, “I love you,” in terms that should be accessible to the pre-K crowd. The book avoids smarminess largely on the basis of the charm of its cast of racially diverse children, wide-eyed and smiling with delight at a succession of roses, chocolates, poems, and hugs, all offered by Little Darling, who is white. The kids are adorable, each in a cozy pair of footie pajamas; the winged cherub’s are bright blue with shiny red hearts. The format is simple: “Little Darling knows the smell of love.” Turn the page, and the cherub offers a brown girl with beaded locs a bouquet of flowers. “Little Darling knows the taste of love”; a turn of the page reveals that taste to be chocolates. Poetry represents “the sound of love.” Little Darling’s preferred way to show love is hugging, making this almost a primer on the five senses. Unfortunately, perhaps, there is no mention of consent. Companion title Little Rabbit’s Easter features a brown-skinned child in a purple bunny suit rounding up a troupe of other children in animal onesies.
Appropriate for Valentine’s Day or any day. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-910716-71-7
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Boxer Books
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
A forgettable tale.
Dot, the smallest reindeer at the North Pole, is too little to fly with the reindeer team on Christmas Eve, but she helps Santa in a different, unexpected way.
Dot is distressed because she can’t jump and fly like the other, bigger reindeer. Her family members encourage her and help her practice her skills, and her mother tells her, “There’s always next year.” Dot’s elf friend, Oliver, encourages her and spends time playing with her, doing things that Dot can do well, such as building a snowman and chasing their friend Yeti (who looks like a fuzzy, white gumdrop). On Christmas Eve, Santa and the reindeer team take off with their overloaded sleigh. Only Dot notices one small present that’s fallen in the snow, and she successfully leaps into the departing sleigh with the gift. This climactic flying leap into the sleigh is not adequately illustrated, as Dot is shown just starting to leap and then already in the sleigh. A saccharine conclusion notes that being little can sometimes be great and that “having a friend by your side makes anything possible.” The story is pleasant but predictable, with an improbably easy solution to Dot’s problem. Illustrations in a muted palette are similarly pleasant but predictable, with a greeting-card flavor that lacks originality. The elf characters include boys, girls, and adults; all the elves and Santa and Mrs. Claus are white.
A forgettable tale. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-15738-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
A satisfying friendship story to share with very young children in the days leading up to Halloween.
This board book twists the traditional “Teeny Tiny” tale into a less-scary Halloween treat.
This version uses a singsong-y rhythm and cadence to tell the story. “In the teeny tiny barn / Of a teeny tiny house... / Lived a teeny tiny ghost / and a teeny tiny mouse.” Of course the ghost (being teeny tiny) is not very frightening. “But the determined little ghost / Let her mighty courage through / And with a teeny tiny breath / She said a teeny tiny: boo.” Spoiler alert: After just seven page turns the ghost and mouse become friends: “And now the teeny tinies play / In the teeny tiny house. / Just a teeny tiny ghost / And her best friend, mouse.” Pumpkins decorate the cover and final spread and illustrations throughout are in autumnal hues. The fairly high-for-the-format word count—19 to 21 words per page—may be more than toddlers will sit still for, but the “teeny tiny” repetition and rhymes will help. The size (just 6 inches square) makes using the book with a group a challenge, but with a lap-sitting child, it’ll be a pleasure.
A satisfying friendship story to share with very young children in the days leading up to Halloween. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-31848-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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