Expect gleeful chortles from budding atom-smashers and collision-safety experts.
A trip to visit Zebra turns into a game of colliding creatures in this French book-and-toy import.
Young readers can play along, as the episode comes packaged in a slipcase box with eight thick, rounded, particle-board animal figures. Gorilla, who’s “bored, bored, bored,” decides to visit Zebra for a round of the titular diversion and is joined along the way by Elephant, Lion, Giraffe, and Rhino—the last offering a willing Crocodile to ferry everyone across the wide river. Unfortunately, in midriver the travelers (literally) run into Hippo. “BADABOOM / BADATHUMP!” All end up in a heap in front of Zebra…who thinks that game looks like even more fun than Badaboom Badabump. Deneux cheats a little, stretching Crocodile out in the illustration so that all the animals line up neatly on its back at once, which is not possible with the accompanying toys. Still, along with offering a basic lesson in Newtonian principles, the challenge of finding a way to stack the animals in a stable formation followed by the gratification of ramming them into Hippo and seeing them fly makes a pleasing experience for anyone who likes to bang things together.
Expect gleeful chortles from budding atom-smashers and collision-safety experts. (Board book/novelty. 1.5-3)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 979-1-02760-706-8
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver.
The farmyard's chickens experience Halloween.
A round, full moon shines in the sky, and the chickens of Boynton's barnyard are feeling “nervous.” Pumpkins shine “with flickering eyes,” witches and wizards wander the pastures, and one chicken has seen “a mouse of enormous size.” It’s Halloween night, and readers will delight as the chickens huddle together and try to figure out what's going on. All ends well, of course, and in Boynton's trademark silly style. (It’s really quite remarkable how her ranks of white, yellow-beaked chickens evoke rows of candy corn.) At this point parents and children know what they're in for when they pick up a book by the prolific author, and she doesn't disappoint here. The chickens are silly, the pigs are cute, and the coloring and illustrations evoke a warmth that little ones wary of Halloween will appreciate. For children leery of the ghouls and goblins lurking in the holiday's iconography, this is a perfect antidote, emphasizing all the fun Halloween has to offer.
An excellent, rounded effort from a creator who knows how to deliver. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7611-9300-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Workman
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to.
This simplified version of Diesen and Hanna’s The Pout-Pout Fish (2008) is appropriate for babies and toddlers.
Brief, rhyming text tells the story of a sullen fish cheered up with a kiss. A little pink sea creature pokes his head out of a hole in the sea bottom to give the gloomy fish some advice: “Smile, Mr. Fish! / You look so down // With your glum-glum face / And your pout-pout frown.” He explains that there’s no reason to be worried, scared, sad or mad and concludes: “How about a smooch? / And a cheer-up wish? // Now you look happy: / What a smile, Mr. Fish!” Simple and sweet, this tale offers the lesson that sometimes, all that’s needed for a turnaround in mood is some cheer and encouragement to change our perspective. The clean, uncluttered illustrations are kept simple, except for the pout-pout fish’s features, which are delightfully expressive. Little ones will easily recognize and likely try to copy the sad, scared and angry looks that cross the fish’s face.
An upbeat early book on feelings with a simple storyline that little ones will respond to. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-374-37084-8
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
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