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MUMMY, WHAT'S IN YOUR TUMMY?

Despite the book’s design flaws, this offering featuring an expecting family of color is a welcome new arrival.

A toddler imagines all the different creatures and things that could be growing or hiding in Mummy’s pregnancy bump.

This trousers-wearing tyke with brown skin and short curly brown hair hugs Mummy and, in the gentle if uninspiring rhyming text, asks a string of questions about her belly: “Is it a watermelon? That would be funny! / Or is it a little jumping bunny!” The tot goes on to wonder with fanciful logic if the bump could be an odd assortment of things of wildly different shapes and sizes, including an elephant, some new toys, a lion, and a mouse. In the end, the youngster realizes that it must be a baby sister and a new playmate. Here the preschooler is joined by a pink-clad toddler girl with matching coloring and straight, brown hair. The art, consisting of highly stylized cartoons adorned with swaths of colors and occasional patterned designs, appears strangely cropped, as if the original, Chilean edition were a different trim size than this 6 ½-inch-square book. Key figures often appear at the edges of the pages, and readers never see the mother in toto.

Despite the book’s design flaws, this offering featuring an expecting family of color is a welcome new arrival. (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: March 15, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-78285-976-5

Page Count: 20

Publisher: Barefoot Books

Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020

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TEENY WEENY LOOKS FOR HIS MOMMY

A TINY TAB BOOK

The simple lost-and-found storyline, cheery illustrations and easy-to-manipulate tabs will make this interactive title a tot...

This engaging, interactive offering features Teeny Weeny, an adorable little mouse in search of his mother.

Four large, round tabs depicting different animals poke out of this sturdy little title from the top and side, providing an interesting profile and the promise of interactivity right from the start. Teeny Weeny first looks for Mommy behind a tree, but she’s not there. When the tab—easily grasped by little hands—is pulled out, readers find a cat hiding there instead. Teeny next checks for Mommy in a pirate ship. Pulling the tab here reveals a crocodile, but that’s not all; the motion also opens two portals in the ship, uncovering both Dog and Pig. Push Crocodile back into place, and Dog and Pig are hidden once again. A determined Teeny finds many other hidden animals as he looks for Mommy in the flowers and the playhouse, behind the wall and in a tree before finally finding her behind a picnic basket filled with goodies. Companion title Bunny Boo Has Lost Her Teddy is filled with similar surprises and another comforting conclusion.

The simple lost-and-found storyline, cheery illustrations and easy-to-manipulate tabs will make this interactive title a tot favorite . (Board book. 1-3)

Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-7636-7273-7

Page Count: 8

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014

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THAT'S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU

A derivative work in a market already oversaturated with similar titles.

An unsuccessful knockoff of The Runaway Bunny and Guess How Much I Love You.

A raccoon tells its cub how much it is loved in first-person rhymed verse. “I love you, I love you, above all the rest. / If you were a bird, I’d be your nest.” While Rudi’s verse is fluid, it has been done to death. Beeke’s richly colored paintings on grained and textured paper do well in the stage-setting scenes of the raccoon and cub together but fall apart in most of the forced, fanciful analogies of parental love. “If you were a squirrel, I’d be your tree” depicts a squirrel peeping out of a hole in a hollow tree; above the hole is a rudimentary happy face, complete with pink cheeks, and a twig circles round to “hug” the squirrel. Particularly cumbersome is the second-to-last spread, which depicts several pairings, such as cone and ice cream, salt and pepper, and needle and thread, but it is not at all clear who is meant to be the parent and who the child.

A derivative work in a market already oversaturated with similar titles. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)

Pub Date: March 1, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-58925-644-6

Page Count: 20

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: March 19, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013

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