Though it has a bit of an identity crisis, this board book will be a useful addition to little readers' shelves.
See and name a plethora of objects, foods, and animals in this sunny, oversized board book.
Sitting somewhere between a traditional picture dictionary and a seek-and-find text, most pages are devoted to identifying labeled items that float in copious white space, but also included are four pages that invite readers to locate items from within a scene. Though both forms work, the seeking games are unpredictably spaced such that the book doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Set against shiny white backgrounds, graphic representations are sorted into practical categories, such as “in the bathroom” or “animals,” all with strong potential for vocabulary-building. There’s a pleasing assortment of items depicted; a kitchen scene, for instance, includes a spoon and toaster but also a cookie jar and a cherry-red mixer. The illustrations lack subtlety and were created with primary colors and no shading. Though items are instantly identifiable, sometimes scale may confuse: A pig, for one, is portrayed as larger than an elephant. The seek-and-find pages, adjacent to the picture-dictionary pages, are sassier, full-bleed illustrations with busy, vividly colored backgrounds. Most items are fairly easy to locate, and a smattering of italicized typeset hints provide structure for the game.
Though it has a bit of an identity crisis, this board book will be a useful addition to little readers' shelves. (Board book. 1-4)Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-60537-619-6
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
This multiethnic title is not memorable enough to become a bedtime favorite.
This third title in the New Books for Newborns series features multiethnic dads getting their infants ready for bed.
Each double-page spread shows a different child with their male parent engaged in bedtime rituals. Four lines of rhyming text, each time starting with the same first line, point out nighttime objects. “Hush a bye, my baby. / Can you hear the owl call? / Time to close your eyes gently / as night starts to fall.” The text is for the most part simple and uses familiar vocabulary, but sometimes scansion falters. Although the hair and skin colors in this book range from pale to rich brown, most of the dad-and-child pairs seem to be racially similar, and no distinctly biracial child is depicted. Illustrations in a soothing pastel palette show a fair-skinned, red-haired dad carrying a tired, fair-skinned, brown-haired baby up the stairs; a dad with brown skin and brown hair holds a similar-looking baby wrapped in a towel; and a dad and child with dark hair and dark skin rock together in a chair, reading a book. Most of the dads are shown to be affectionate but not interactive with their infants. This series is meant for newborns, but the fine-lined, busy, and sometimes conceptually abstract illustrations may be more suitable for toddlers or even young preschoolers.
This multiethnic title is not memorable enough to become a bedtime favorite. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0139-6
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A pleasant enough interactive tool.
Little ones learn to make animal sounds.
A mouse wanders the barnyard and meets several different animals, telling each one, "I like to squeak. How do you speak?" When readers lift a flap, each animal makes its noise as an electronic voice box sounds off. The inside of the flap asks a rhyming set of questions, one providing prompts for verbal interaction and the second, physical: "Can you oink like a pig? Can you dance a silly jig?" The audio triggered by lifting the flaps is cute, but unfortunately the desired effect only works a handful of times, and the (replaceable) battery inside the book doesn't last very long. Nonetheless, the interactive parts of the book will entice little readers regardless of electronic stimuli, making this a solid addition to storytime. The illustrations are bright but otherwise unremarkable, and the animals are pretty common, but readings will surely be spiced up by prompts to take giant leaps or swish a tail and bow.
A pleasant enough interactive tool. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-68010-505-6
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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