illustrated by Carmen Saldaña ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 13, 2021
Unusually rich in wordplay as well as visual drollery.
A split-page format invites mixing and matching pop-up beaks and muzzles on five farm animals.
Thanks to vertical labels placed as artfully as the central pop-ups, a “cow” gives way in predictable fashion to a “dog,” a “rooster,” “pig,” and so on—or, if just one of the sturdy half pages is turned, a “dow” or “row,” “pog” or “cooster,” etc., with likewise silly mismatched faces and bodies. The cog gazes earnestly out at viewers, wide eyes above a pop-up bovine nose on top, a pop-up border collie’s lower jaw, complete with canines and tongue, meeting it on the bottom. “MOO! WOLF!” it says. The rig is caught in full “COCK-A-OINK! the porcine lower jaw open wide beneath the top portion of the rooster’s beak. Along with comical sound effects, conventional or otherwise (“COCK-A-MOO!”), two flaps on each spread lift to reveal sprightly (uncredited) rhymes: “Out in the meadows / I chew and I munch. / Flowers and weeds / I will eat by the bunch!” The goat’s declaration that “my four sturdy hooves / help me climb to the sky” may require some adult amplification since Saldaña depicts the animal standing in a meadow, but that’s the only mismatch here that won’t set the Oshkosh set to giggling. The stock is fairly sturdy, so the book stands a good chance of lasting through a few careful spins through the permutations.
Unusually rich in wordplay as well as visual drollery. (Pop-up picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5082-3
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Share your opinion of this book
More by Wendy Meddour
BOOK REVIEW
by Wendy Meddour ; illustrated by Carmen Saldaña
BOOK REVIEW
by Wendy Meddour ; illustrated by Carmen Saldaña
BOOK REVIEW
by Radka Janská ; illustrated by Carmen Saldaña
by Christopher Silas Neal ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 27, 2018
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jody Jensen Shaffer
BOOK REVIEW
by Jody Jensen Shaffer ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
BOOK REVIEW
by Jennifer Adams ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
BOOK REVIEW
by Kate Messner ; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
by Audrey Penn ; illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2014
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
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
by Audrey Penn ; illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson
by Audrey Penn & illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson
More by Audrey Penn
BOOK REVIEW
by Audrey Penn ; illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson
BOOK REVIEW
by Audrey Penn ; illustrated by Mike Yamada
BOOK REVIEW
by Audrey Penn & illustrated by Barbara L. Gibson
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.