High marks for validating toddlers’ feelings but otherwise unremarkable.
Toddler Kai navigates the transition to big brotherhood with the help of his parents.
By providing lots of reassurance and clear explanations, Kai’s parents guide him through his anxiety, pride, and even anger at the arrival of his new little sibling. The story features an interracial, heteronormative family with a White-presenting mom and brown-skinned dad. All plays out exactly as one might expect: Welcoming a new sibling isn’t easy, but the older child winds up feeling secure in his place in the family. With cool colors and a muted palette, the illustrations are sweet if a little bland. The real strength of this book is the way that it models for caregivers how to validate a child’s feelings and provide comfort. For example, Kai’s mother identifies his anger, gives him words for what he’s experiencing, and reminds him, “I love you, Kai, even when you’re angry.” As a part of the Terrific Toddler series, it includes a note to parents and caregivers at the end with advice related to helping a toddler welcome a new baby. Two other books in the series publish simultaneously, Potty! and Time To Go! They address helping children learn to use the toilet and transition from activity to activity, respectively. Oddly, given the audience, the relatively wordy text is printed on flimsy paper pages instead of board.
High marks for validating toddlers’ feelings but otherwise unremarkable. (Picture book. 2-3)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4338-3250-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A+ for Big Ben earns only a C-.
Ellis and LaFave’s charming Big Ben (2001) is adapted into a board-book format.
Parents of babies and toddlers will wonder why, as neither the text nor the subject matter (young Ben wants a report card, just like his older siblings) reflects the interests or concerns of the audience that board books are designed for. A preschooler like Ben, who is able to whistle and tie his own shoes, is also old enough to turn the pages of a regular picture book. Simple illustrations designed to emulate a preschooler's crayon drawings are not enough to make this text-heavy story appropriate for a toddler. These drawings, arranged on comfortable expanses of white space in the original book, are crammed into the smaller trim size. Imprecise language will confuse toddlers. For example, at one point the text reads, “Ben is too little to see.” Actually Ben can see just fine—he just can't see out the window.
A+ for Big Ben earns only a C-. (Board book. 2-3)Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-927485-76-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Pick up a copy or two for the toddlers and toddler-fans in your life.
A celebration of what it is to be 2!
Toddlerhood often gets a bad rap—just think of the phrase “terrible twos.” But in O’Leary and Klassen’s hands, 2 is anything but terrible. Two is active, capable, vocal, compassionate, thoughtful, creative, determined…whole. Two is human in this picture book, and the narration’s direct address provides affirmation of toddlers’ human complexity and dignity from one spread to the next: “Now that you are two, you are learning about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You are forming memories and making plans.” Accompanying illustrations depict a diverse range of children, different ones on each spread, which nicely avoids having any one depiction of toddlerhood falsely stand in as universal, who engage in activities that echo or expand on the text. Playful industriousness gives way to contemplative calm or mischievous determination, embodied in the faces and postures of the children. The dialectic between art and text offers some surprises, too, as when the line “Wherever you go your baby goes, too” is paired with a picture of a child in the bathtub—not with a baby doll but with a sudsy toy T. Rex.
Pick up a copy or two for the toddlers and toddler-fans in your life. (Picture book. 2)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77147-073-5
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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