by Caroline Jayne Church ; illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2013
Little ones will enjoy pressing the button, driving adults in earshot crazy in the process, but after the battery wears out,...
Complete with laugh track, a bevy of toddlers enjoys playing together.
Readers can press a button, accessible on every page through a die-cut hole in the book, to hear a baby’s giggle that comes from a sound recording embedded in the book. In pastel colors, each single- or double-page spread shows cherubs hugging, smiling and moving in sketched cartoons against gently mottled backgrounds. While the kids appear to be of a variety of ethnicities, their skin tones are remarkably similar. Each scene is met with one or two lines of verse that start off playfully (“Laugh out loud or just giggle! / Feel a tickle in your middle!”), but the second-person point of view grows confusing; are adult readers speaking to their little ones via the text, or are the toddler characters speaking to one another? Since the battery pack for the sound mechanism takes up half of the available pages of the book, there are only really six scenes in the entire package.
Little ones will enjoy pressing the button, driving adults in earshot crazy in the process, but after the battery wears out, this title will likely be a shelf-sitter. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-35082-2
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
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by Dan Saks ; illustrated by Brooke Smart ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020
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
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by Patricia Hegarty ; illustrated by Thomas Elliott ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2021
Guess how much you’ll be reading this.
Parent and child share a day of small adventures and cozy snuggles.
That the two happen to be tortoises is totally beside the point. Die-cut holes and shaped edges turn nearly every page flip into a surprise. Following a parental “Good morning, Baby” to greet the youngling’s “Wake up, wake up, I want to play… / The sun is up, it’s a brand new day!” the two reptiles ramble off to munch on leaves, weather a sudden rain shower, discover a flock of butterflies, climb a hill, watch the moon rise, and, at last, weary little one perched on top, settle down to snooze again. The paper engineering is ingenious. Turning a seemingly arbitrarily shaped page with a special window framing a pink butterfly fills the spread with many jewel-toned insects; even though the tortoises never change position, the scene is completely transformed. Hegarty’s rhymed narrative features lots of tender sentiments—“Wherever you are, wherever you go, / Baby, I’ll always love you so”—while steering clear of any gender references. In Elliott’s peaceful, grassy settings the wanderers’ small smiles and shared glances likewise create a sense of loving intimacy. This is likely to become a victim of its own appeal, being as the paper stock is rather too flimsy to survive much contact with toddler hands. Still, a clear winner for sharing with audiences of one or dozens.
Guess how much you’ll be reading this. (Novelty. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3509-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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