Great fun for one-on-one sharing and a perfect toddler storytime selection.
A playful exploration of the body for the littlest learners.
This deceptively simple offering engages toddlers by asking them to participate in the fun by identifying various parts of their bodies and moving them about: “Touch your ears, make them wiggle. / Touch your belly, laugh and giggle. // Touch your mouth, open wide. / Touch your arms, wave side to side.” Periodically, the action is interrupted by a catalog of body parts in the form of a catchy refrain: “Mouth, ears, eyes, nose, // arms, belly, legs, / and ten tiny toes!” The brief, lyrical text, the opportunities for interactivity and the focus on a subject dear to toddlers’ hearts—themselves and all their glorious parts—make this a candidate for repeat readings. The illustrations feature a happy, shaggy-haired Caucasian toddler and his little teddy bear. The backgrounds are kept simple, focusing readers’ attention on the little one as he explores his body as the text directs. In a sweet conclusion, the toddler embraces his teddy, no body part to highlight here—only “a love that grows and grows.”
Great fun for one-on-one sharing and a perfect toddler storytime selection. (Board book. 3 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-53601-1
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This beautiful celebration of the importance of family will also spur young readers to reflect on history.
An African American grandfather and grandson take a time-traveling journey through U.S. history in this mystical and heartwarming picture book.
When his grandson announces that he does not want to go to school, Big Papa takes action. Sweeping him up in his time machine (which looks a lot like a 1950s-era automobile), the pair visit Little Rock and Chicago in the ’40s through the ’80s, the places where Big Papa grew to manhood. In recounting his struggles with dangerous jobs and working conditions and his trepidation at marriage and impending fatherhood, Big Papa gives his grandson a lesson in developing bravery while also teaching him the importance of getting an education. Love and reverence for history and family radiate from Bernstorm’s words. Backmatter indicates that the story is inspired by the author’s family, and he couldn’t have penned a more moving testament to their dignity and endurance. Evans’ whimsical, sunny-hued illustrations have a dreamlike quality that nicely maintains balance between the fantasy of time travel and the heaviness of some of the subject matter. This is particularly evident in the vignette set in the Arkansas cotton fields, where a fellow African American tells Big Papa to give up school because “work, that’s all you ever gonna do.”
This beautiful celebration of the importance of family will also spur young readers to reflect on history. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-246331-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside.
Readers can count down eight of Santa's reindeer as they jump up and out of the scene.
In each one of the mostly double-page spreads, one reindeer, from Dasher to Blitzen, plays a central role in a winter activity (sledding, ski jumping, ice skating—and soccer and yoga?) that launches the creature into the air. Glitter-speckled tabs, each with small portraits of a member of Santa's herd, appear at either the top or the right side of each page, which little fingers will enjoy flipping. In what looks to be pencil-and-watercolor cartoons, Rogers uses different facial expressions, as well as collars, bows or other accessories, to distinguish the reindeer from one another. Donner (not Donder) and Blitzen are squeezed together on the penultimate spread, likely to keep the page count down. The verse mostly scans, but the rhyme scheme has become the cliché of counting books: "Eight jolly reindeer / stretching up to heaven. / Up goes Dasher / and then there are... // Seven...." Santa, his iconic sleigh and the eight reindeer in flight make a dramatic and required appearance on the book's final double-page spread.
As with many holiday gifts, the sparkly packaging may interest toddlers more than what’s inside. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-65145-5
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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