Another metafictive storytime crowd-pleaser.
A string of narratorial mistakes in this Australian import gives children a chance to gleefully correct the adult reading it aloud.
The cover is the first clue that something is amiss. A thin arrow points to a cube, which is distinctly not a ball. But the title says otherwise. The narrator begins with a few questions to establish a base knowledge. “Is this a triangle?” (It is.) “Is this a cat?” (It isn’t.) “And what’s this?” (A banana.) Lauding the listeners’ presumably correct responses, the narrator exclaims, “Excellent! Great job. It’s good to know we agree.” But that dynamic is set up purely to fail. The clean design has a rotating collection of solid background colors on the verso pages, with crisp white pages opposite them. Each white page has an object on it. But the confused narrator just doesn’t know what these objects are. A simple, line-drawn elephant has the corresponding declaration: “This is a dog.” The Stantons anticipate giggles and a chorus of children shouting their dissent. The narrator counters with: “Nah, it’s a dog for sure. I can see its eye. Its legs. It must be a dog.” The silly banter continues, gradually combining all of the objects into one (still wildly incorrect) story.
Another metafictive storytime crowd-pleaser. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-43437-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charmingly illustrated and designed work that will have trouble finding its readership.
Each letter of the alphabet gets fresh and fancy in this primer from typography guru Hische.
“Letters can be A-for-Athletic,” “J-for-Jeweled,” or “U-for-Unique,” but one thing’s for sure: “Each and every letter is AWESOME!” On each page, lowercase letters are rendered in pastel 3D block lettering, while uppercase counterparts take on stylized typographic pizzazz to match the descriptive text, which features lively adjectives that begin with the corresponding letter. Each anthropomorphized letter has a simple, expressive doodled face and stick limbs. Lowercase b uses a tiny bubble wand to blow a soapy, uppercase bubbly B. Uppercase M is drawn with curling serifs and a rabbit-filled top hat and a wand, much to the delight of the lowercase m spectator. Each scene is colorfully detailed, though visually a bit flattened by the stark white background. While the design is inspired, however, it isn’t clear who this book is intended for. The intricacies of the art may go over the heads of readers learning their ABCs; older children and typography-loving adults, as well as fans of Hische’s work, feel like this book’s true audience. Those readers may find the presentation and format a bit on the young side, while preschoolers will likely struggle with words such as vibrant, prickly, and electric.
A charmingly illustrated and designed work that will have trouble finding its readership. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780593385012
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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