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
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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
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