There is no real story to speak of and it feels more than a bit treacly, but very young readers will enjoy seeing the...
Animals awaken to a lovely morning and get ready for their day.
Chirping birds, splashing frogs and turtles, fish and crabs in the deep sea, and gently floating butterflies all appear in their natural habitats as they begin their day. To a greater or lesser extent, all are depicted as anthropomorphic. Many have homes with beds and other furniture and indoor plumbing. Many wear clothes, brush their teeth, and eat with cutlery. Raccoons play banjos, and porcupines, rabbits, and beavers enjoy playground equipment. They are all neighbors living harmoniously in an idyllic village with expansive parkland (and even a bandstand). A bear family provides a narrative anchor for this very slight tale, as illustrations depict them preparing for a fishing trip amid the rest of the bustle. The book ends when the father bear goes back to bed, and mother and child go fishing together. Each activity is accompanied by boldfaced, large-print, simple descriptive words or phrases that move with the characters through their morning ablutions. Softly colored, detailed cartoon illustrations bring to mind some of the more gently themed animated films of long ago. The pale yellow and brown endpapers could be wallpaper in a child’s room.
There is no real story to speak of and it feels more than a bit treacly, but very young readers will enjoy seeing the everyday activities and the gentle spirits of these animal counterparts. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68119-873-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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