A simple concept book well-suited for a shared reading experience with the youngest digerati.
Cheery illustrations and authentic animal noises make this simple outing to the farm a happy one, introducing 10 common farm animals and their babies.
One cow is joined by one calf, mooing in delight; one horse is met by two foals, with hooves clopping along; a goat then finds her three kids bleating merrily. The pattern progresses until 10 kits scamper up to surround one sleeping rabbit. Martin-Larrañaga captures joy and movement in the animals, especially the babies, with each animal outlined in bold, hand-drawn lines. The app presents a pleasing variety of backgrounds and colors while keeping an uncluttered focus on the animals and text. Readers may choose the “noises” option, which automatically plays the animal noises, or the “quiet” version, which only plays the noises when little fingers tap a page. There is no narration, so an adult must read the names aloud and help count the baby animals. This makes for a textbook lap-sit experience, with an adult reading the app along with a baby or toddler. Unfortunately, the text does not encourage interaction, as Noisy Farm (2013) does. Given the simple text, the opportunities for additional languages to be included in updates are great.
A simple concept book well-suited for a shared reading experience with the youngest digerati. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: July 18, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Ana Martin-Larrañaga
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.
Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2095-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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