This book has virtually nothing going for it.
A polar bear looks for a friend.
None of the arctic foxes want to play with Teddy the polar bear. He tries searching underwater for a friend, to no avail. He doesn’t find one until he hears the splashing of a creature that’s fallen through the ice, which he somehow knows just from the sound is a female—perhaps it was a feminine splash? Teddy jumps to the rescue, and the book comes to a fairly perfunctory end. The big draw are the sliding tabs that open and close Teddy’s jaws on each spread. Little readers can make Teddy talk, cry, chomp, and smile. In a design flaw that must be unintended, Teddy’s gaping mouth unsettlingly frames the unfortunate polar bear who’s fallen through the ice, causing little readers to think perhaps that he is eating her. The sliding panels are more durable than most, but children with a habit of destroying flaps and tabs in board books will slowly wear these out as well. The illustrations are bland, with a white, gray, and blue color scheme that makes every page feel a bit ho-hum. The text is devoid of rhyme or flourish, plainly describing the events as they unfold with little flair. Feminist readers will grind their own teeth at the hoary damsel-in-distress plotline.
This book has virtually nothing going for it. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0345-7
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
The playful gimmicks will keep readers turning the pages and asking for it again and again.
A highly interactive, lightly conceptual board book.
The first of several movable components appears on the cover, which features a Caucasian toddler on a carousel horse that can move up and down via a sliding panel. Most of the consecutive pages present relatively sturdy tactile or interactive elements, all relating to horses. White and black toy horses sport velvety coats, and covering most of the final page of the book is a large flap that doubles as the door of a horse’s stall. Readers follow a toddler duo, a boy and girl pair with dark hair who could likely be fraternal twins, through a whole range of equine-related settings. Church’s cartoons, drawn with black lines over lightly textured backgrounds, present the scenes with crystal clarity. The rhyming text is minimal, but it frames each scene nicely and is just enough for the youngest readers: “Horsey up. / Horsey down. // Horsey jumping all around. // Horsey white. / Horsey black. // Horsey rolling on the track.” While the subtitle claims this work is “A Book of Opposites,” with only three opposite concepts presented in 12 pages, it hardly qualifies as a concept book.
The playful gimmicks will keep readers turning the pages and asking for it again and again. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-51204-6
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Slim? Fleeting? Predictable? Yes, but the youngest listeners won’t mind. Sure to inspire lots of cuddles and lip smacks....
Murphy (Utterly Lovely One, 2011) produces another bright slip of a title just right for the youngest toddlers.
With a Valentine-ready cover in red, pink and white and amusing split-page flaps revealing a silly series of animal kisses, this book will be a popular gift for little ones. Each spread features a vibrantly hued child/parent pair of creatures, including giraffes, mice, fish, bees, elephants, owls and bunnies. The black, smudgy hand-lettered text describes the different kinds of kisses: “gentle and tall,” “fuzzy and buzzy” and “long and toot-tooty.” Each phrase ends with an ellipsis prompting readers to flip the half page to reveal “like this!” and an eyes-closed buss. By the book’s end, all the pairs are busy smooching. “My, oh my—look! Everybody’s kissing! / Now there’s only one kiss missing…. // Your kiss! / Like this!”
Slim? Fleeting? Predictable? Yes, but the youngest listeners won’t mind. Sure to inspire lots of cuddles and lip smacks. (Picture book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6182-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
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