The simple old nursery rhyme is given vibrant life in this incandescent concept book. Hines, a gifted quilt artist, illustrates with her fabric art. Each number gets a full page: Numeral, background and frame appear in different fabrics, and embroidery, fancy stitching, rickrack and buttons (one for each number, adding a counting element) decorate. Some of the buttons are star- or heart- or flower-shaped; many of the fabrics are also patterned with flowers, stripes and geometrics in splendid saturated colors that pop off the paper. A small girl in star-covered overalls (and red shoes with buckles, of course) performs the actions indicated by the rhyme. This version ends with “My big fat hen!”—readers see the hen and child playing tug-o-war with a woolen thread. The last spread shows all the numbers one to ten, outlines of children’s hands and that array of buttons, one atop each digit allowing readers to count one, then two, then three, all the way up to ten. Joyous and great fun. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-15-206305-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008
This mix of clever poems, handsome art and well-chosen typography, despite a few minor flaws, will function equally well for...
This third pairing of Elliott’s reductive poems and Meade’s bold woodcut-and-watercolor illustrations dives deep to explore sea creatures, from tiny shrimp to the mighty blue whale.
Elliott’s poems are short and pithy, often combining elegant metaphor and child-friendly diction. “Five fingers, / like a hand, / the starfish shines / in a sky of sand.” He doesn’t shy from big words that expand children’s imaginations and vocabularies: An octopus is “an eight-armed apparition.” Humorous touches pleasantly conjure Douglas Florian’s poetry. The puffer fish is “A trickster. / A clown. / A magician. / A buffoon. / One minute / she’s a fish; / the next, / she’s a balloon.” Meade’s pictures combine appropriately watery washes with black-inked woodcuts. She conjures the “before” and “after” capabilities of said puffer fish, and her Moray eel undulates fearsomely. Not every spread is completely successful. “The Clown Fish” riffs on inter-species symbiosis, but Elliott stumbles with the possessive phrase “its enemies”—inviting confusion as to whether anemone stings its own enemies, or the clown fish’s. Meade’s shark, possibly a great white, prominently sports stylized throat grooves that more resemble several species of whale.
This mix of clever poems, handsome art and well-chosen typography, despite a few minor flaws, will function equally well for bedtime sharing and early-learning settings. (Picture book/poetry. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4498-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
PLB 0-06-027888-9 Hot pink and lipstick red swirls on the endpapers set the tone for this eye-catching counting book. Drawn in by colors that leap from the page and boldly printed, chant-along couplets, readers join ten young students as they collect a flower each for their teacher’s bouquet: “Ten rosy roses standing in a line,/Jan picks one and now there are nine.” In an unexpected finish, twins pick the last roses, taking the count from two to “none.” A dramatic use of close-up perspectives makes the children appear huge; in some cases, they spill over the tops of the page. The illustrations have a retro feel to them that charmingly highlights every character’s unique physical appearance. Readers will delight in the antics of a bright yellow butterfly that joins the class on the eighth rose and remains on hand until the bouquet is presented to Ms. Jones. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: April 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027887-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999
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