The familiar childhood song of “Over in the Meadow” receives a makeover in a lush new setting. With an upbeat tempo, catchy rhymes take readers on a tour of the African landscape while they learn about the numbers one through ten. From three squawking eaglets to ten sleepy monkeys, Wilson introduces a wide array of exotic and familiar animals. Rhythmic verses remain faithful to the original format of the traditional poem: “Over in the grasslands / where the sun shines late / Lived an old mother toad / and her little toads eight / ‘Hop,’ said the mother. / ‘We hop,’ said the eight. / So they hopped and they hopped / while the sun shone late.” Adult readers will be hard-pressed not to warble the sing-songy rhymes during read-aloud sessions while the repetitive structure of the poem invites preschoolers’ exuberant participation. Bartlett’s illustrations shimmer with the colorful intensity of the African plains; the slightly blurred renderings capture the abundant flora and fauna of the terrain. A two-page spread is dedicated to each new number introduced, with the verse on one side and an accompanying illustration on the other. Prominently placed in the upper left-hand corner of each spread is a picture of the highlighted numeral. The full-bleed, full-color illustrations on the facing pages depict an animal mother and babies in their natural habitat; lions loll on a grassy slope while hippos soak in a sapphire-blue, fish-filled pond. End pages include an overview of the numbers and animals. A melodious and edifying addition to the genre. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-316-93910-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS
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The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.
Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Esteban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Easter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-62105-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS
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A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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