A mild, recognizable adventure for toddlers.
Bright, brief, undeniably cute but still rather bland, Pip and Posy’s (The Scary Monster, 2012, etc.) third adventure involves a mishap with a red balloon.
Vibrant gouache hues paint the everyday world of these two animal friends. “Pip had a…balloon of his very own. He liked it a lot.” He shows it to Posy, and off they go on a walk. As they admire toys in a store window, “by mistake, Pip let the balloon go!” They chase after it until it pops on a sharp tree branch in the park. Pip is crushed: “He cried and cried and cried.” Toddlers and preschoolers will relate to Pip’s unfortunate turn of events and his ensuing tears. When Posy has the inspired idea to blow bubbles, Pip emerges from his misery and has some fun; they do not mind when they pop, “because that’s what bubbles are supposed to do!” Simple text constructed with a controlled vocabulary and presented in a large font may make this a decent choice for new readers as well as a read-aloud for toddlers, even though the relative lack of story and pat ending limit its overall appeal.
A mild, recognizable adventure for toddlers. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6372-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
Pleasant and sentimental ponderings for new parents and children.
A couple imagines the wonder-filled first moments of their newborn.
“Somewhere in the world, / the world so far, / the world so wide,” sits an orange house surrounded by verdant fields and wispy wildflowers. And in that house, “someone is the / youngest person alive.” What will they see first? Hear? Smell? Through direct address, McGhee explores these firsts. Perhaps it’ll be a “blanket and bunny, / toes and tummy” that they’ll touch first, or perhaps it’ll be “the arms of / someone warm.” One day when the child is grown, they might have a little one of their own who at one moment too will have been “the youngest person alive.” And as a parent, they’ll show their child “a life / that’s bright and true” and a “world [that] will feel / full of love.” With layers of textures—swaths of squiggles and lines—and a colorful palette, Alizadeh’s smudgily outlined illustrations bring a soft but bright energy to the author’s tender text. Scenes alternate between spreads of the family out in the expansive world with interior shots of cozy parent-child moments at home. Occasional close-ups set against minimal backgrounds highlight the love in a parent’s eyes as they connect with their child. The father is white and mother ambiguously tanner.
Pleasant and sentimental ponderings for new parents and children. (Picture book. 2-5, adult)Pub Date: March 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-0633-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Two Lions
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Purchase for some temporary interactive Halloween fun.
Four green-faced witches fly through this durable board book looking for Halloween fun.
A turn of the notched wheel embedded in the cover page changes the sparkly stripes on a witch’s hat, cape, and broom. Three more witches join the fun inside. Though not identified by gender, all wear dresses. All the interactive elements are focused on the first witch, who wears fluffy orange hair in two pigtails. One slider simultaneously lifts a broom and plops a straight hat on top of that hair. Another slides the witch across the night sky. A second wheel shows the ingredients being added to a cauldron. A final slider magically produces three black cats. Two lines of (uncredited) rhyming text on each of the four double-page spreads hint at what the interactive element will reveal. While the text is conveniently placed in the same spot on each spread, the vocabulary is peppered with reach words for the toddler audience: “Off they swooped on whizzing brooms, / heading for the potions room.” Mice, pumpkins, spiderwebs, owls, brooms, bats, and other thematically appropriate objects and creatures scattered across the busy pages place the book firmly in the Halloween genre. Unnamed and primarily decorative, these seemingly arbitrary additions distract from the slight story thread. Toddlers will readily manipulate the five smoothly performing interactive elements; unfortunately, the text and pictures are not equally enticing.
Purchase for some temporary interactive Halloween fun. (Novelty board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4463-1
Page Count: 8
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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