An excellent bedtime choice that promotes a timeless closeness between parent and child.
A rhyming love song imagines the future of a baby in this picture book.
Sitting in a rocking chair with an infant, the narrator of the poem envisions the child’s wishes: “I gaze into your twinkling eyes / and pray they all come true.” As both the parent and baby drift off to sleep, the nursery seems to open beyond its walls, revealing a future world where the child meets farmyard animals, sails on the ocean, enjoys the beach, climbs trees, makes snow ice cream, and finally goes to school. Some of the activities are performed alone as the child gains independence while others are special times shared with the parent. But as all of those things are considered, the narrator confesses that the nursery is the “onlywhere” to be. Bullman’s stanzas flow smoothly in both rhyme and scansion. On some pages, the choice to insert words in the images, such as crooked over mountaintops or curved along a sidewalk, makes the phrases more difficult to decipher, especially for newly independent readers. The challenging vocabulary (splendors, sparkling morn) and the theme of fleeting childhood seem designed for adults to read the tale aloud to young ones. Lap readers will enjoy McAfee’s bright watercolors, which feature characters with varied skin tones (the parent and child both present as White). Despite the frequently cheerful events, the tone is intentionally subdued, mimicking a lullaby.
An excellent bedtime choice that promotes a timeless closeness between parent and child.Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950169-41-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Blue Whale Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday.
Animal parents declare their love for their offspring in alphabetical order.
Each page displays an enormous capital letter, one line of verse with the keyword capitalized, and a loving nonhuman parent gazing adoringly at their baby. “A is for Always. I always love you more. / B is for Butterfly kisses. It’s you that I adore.” While not named or labelled as such, the A is also for an alligator and its hatchling and B is for a butterfly and a butterfly child (not a caterpillar—biology is not the aim of this title) interacting in some way with the said letter. For E there are an elephant and a calf; U features a unicorn and foal; and X, keyed to the last letter of the animal’s name, corresponds to a fox and three pups. The final double-page spread shows all the featured creatures and their babies as the last line declares: “Baby, I love you from A to Z!” The verse is standard fare and appropriately sentimental. The art is cartoony-cute and populated by suitably loving critters on solid backgrounds. Hearts accent each scene, but the theme of the project is never in any doubt.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, but the syrupy sweetness will cloy after the holiday. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2095-6
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers.
A board-book ode to parental love as old as the dinosaurs.
A line of text on the left of each spread reads like a dinosaur-themed valentine that a third grader might choose, with punishingly punny wordplay that incorporates dinosaur-related words. On the facing page a dinosaur pair—a baby and an adult—gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes against whimsical, pastel-hued prehistoric-ish backgrounds. In smaller print, in all caps, at the bottom of the left page is the scientific name for the dinosaur referenced by the text and picture followed by a helpful phonetic pronunciation guide. White-outlined footprints appear next to their names, though the white is sometimes difficult to see against the pastel pages. Ten of the best-known dinosaurs are included. Twisting the dinosaur names to fit the loving sentiments succeeds some of the time but more often results in tortured text, well beyond the understanding of the board book audience. The line accompanying two hugging velociraptors, for instance, is just confusing: “Wrap-TOR arms around me, / with you I’ll always stay.” Others are just plain clumsy: “I-wanna-GUANODON you kisses, / I truly just adore you.” Very young children, even those fascinated by dinosaurs, will not get it. Older dinosaur fans will be put off by the babyish format.
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2295-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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