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
Twenty times per spread is too much brand trumpeting for, well, anyone; still, this will sell as a baby-shower gift for...
A bright, cheerful illustration of the reason why picture books shouldn’t be product-placement vehicles.
Although the back lists the illustrator credit in miniscule font, the front cover and spine credit only “PANTONE®” as creator of this concept piece. PANTONE® is a company that offers a trademarked system of standardized colors—a method of specifying and matching colors from afar. Here, each right-hand page features a cartoony object in a single hue, while the facing left-hand page has a 20-square grid of variations on that hue. Assets are the vibrant visual energy throughout and an emphasis on hue variations that can be detected in the facing illustration. But every variation broadcasts a name and identity number—and the brand, lest readers forget. Some names are cutesy (“Pink Lemonade Pink: PANTONE 210”), others meaningless as color identifiers (“Apron Blue: PANTONE 314”; “Mitten Purple: PANTONE 259”). Readers old enough to comprehend the PANTONE concept will have long outgrown this toddler-friendly art; worse, when they read the disclaimer that “PANTONE Colors may not match PANTONE-identified standards. Consult current PANTONE Color Publications for accurate color,” they’ll be disgusted that a color standardization company is betraying its own raison d’être.
Twenty times per spread is too much brand trumpeting for, well, anyone; still, this will sell as a baby-shower gift for expectant graphic designers. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0180-1
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Clean design and invitations to action will help young builders become readers—expect to find this book in the sand box or...
This busy board book introduces five colors, five construction vehicles, and five physical movements.
Each spread begins with the same two couplets: “Noisy Yellow Digger meets someone new. / ‘What is your name and what do you do?’ ” An orange crane, green steamroller, blue dump truck, and red bulldozer each reply, “I’ll show you what I do....” Behind a full-page flap, each truck uses simple, first-person language to explain its basic function in relation to the yellow digger. On the opposite side of the now-open flap cheerful construction-worker bears invite child readers to mimic each vehicle’s action. Opening the flap also produces a truck sound that plays briefly. (The book’s speaker is in the rear cover, so readers may need to take care not to muffle it.) A radio appears with all the vehicles on the final spread, and the flap opens to reveal the bears dancing. The sounds seem almost incidental; the book’s strengths are clear, consistent illustrations and repetitive language. For example, the scene changes with each page, but the digger is always the same, and details (a bee, butterfly, or cloud) shown on the closed page can be found in the same place when the flap is opened. Small print on the back cover cautions that the sounds are light-activated, which makes this a poor choice for bedtime.
Clean design and invitations to action will help young builders become readers—expect to find this book in the sand box or on the road rug. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5892-5242-4
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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