This book will have babies and toddlers spinning the pages again and again.
A genuinely clever new twist on standard board-book topics.
Extra-thick die-cut shapes set on thin spindles turn at the center of each page to make a counting and matching game. The first spin is fairly straightforward—a ladybug with just one spot turns to reveal the same ladybug with two spots. The challenge is to have the spots aligned correctly with the numeral and spelled-out number. Young children will just want to spin the image. Thoughtful adults will be needed to point out the variations in each side of the image. What is counted on subsequent pages is more obscure: zigzags on a fish, stars on a starfish, splashes on a pig, stripes on a tiger. Bright colors, cheerful, smiling animal characters, and that spin will make this twisty title a favorite of active babies and toddlers. The companion volume, Shapes, is equally sophisticated, starting with diamond and including circle and semicircle, square and rectangle, oval and crescent, star and pentagon. Too often a clever concept means a steep price, but that is not the case here; the book is no more expensive than many far less enticing board books. The extra-thick pages needed to accommodate the spindles make the book rather heavy for the youngest children to manipulate, but its sturdy construction is ample compensation.
This book will have babies and toddlers spinning the pages again and again. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7641-6809-3
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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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