Toddlers will be ready to sing “Old MacDonald” after this board-book guessing game.
Wake up! It’s time to meet the farm animals.
A rooster with boldly colored plumage begins the morning wake-up call against a sunrise-peach sky. The dog wakes—“Woof, woof!”—and rouses the sheep: “Baa!” And so it goes, with cow, horse, pig, and goat each taking center stage by turn. Each animal gets full-spread treatment against clear blue skies and uncluttered backdrops. The signature noise and name of each animal are set in boldface within two sentences of descriptive text. Following this description, the narrator spies a tail, ear, hoof, or horn on the right edge of each spread that hints at which animal will appear next. On each spread, a tiny mouse that’s hidden in plain sight sleeps through the noise, finally waking on the penultimate spread, in which: “Shhh! The cat is still sleeping.” The final-spread reprise of all eight farm animal sounds finally wakens the cat. The smiling, large-scale animals make it clear what toddler readers should focus on, the simple, farm-scene backgrounds putting the animals in context without too many distractions. Guessing which animal is next and searching for the hidden mouse provide just the right amount of interaction for the target age group.
Toddlers will be ready to sing “Old MacDonald” after this board-book guessing game. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-60537-568-7
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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
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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